


Wolves

by Ivealwayswantedtousethatspell



Series: Songs of Life: Severitus Tales [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Harry Potter, BAMF Severus Snape, BAMF Sirius Black, Beauxbatons, Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter Friendship, Durmstrang, Elemental Magic, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, France (Country), Good Severus Snape, Harry Potter Angst, Harry Potter Has a Family, Harry Potter Has a Pet Snake, Harry Potter Has a Saving People Thing, Harry Potter is Lord Potter, Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Fourth Year, Hogwarts Triwizard Champion is a Slytherin, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Minor Original Character(s), Non-Canon Relationship, Not Canon Compliant, Original Character(s), Powerful Harry, Powerful Harry Potter, Sentient Hogwarts, Severitus | Severus Snape is Harry Potter's Parent, Severus Snape Adopts Harry Potter, Severus Snape Has a Heart, Triwizard Tourment Different Tasks, Triwizard Tournament
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:55:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 109,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25514629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ivealwayswantedtousethatspell/pseuds/Ivealwayswantedtousethatspell
Summary: It's Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts and he's just expect it to go wrong. It does of course, when he gets entered into the Triwizard Tournament that Beauxbatons hosting for Durmstrang and Hogwarts.A note that the Triwiz tasks are going to be different from in cannon – let’s mix it up a bit!This is the third part of Songs of Life: Severitus Tales, I doubt this will make sense without reading the first two works ‘I don’t know you yet’ and ‘Rather be’.The song this work (and chapter titles) is named for is ‘Wolves’ by Selena Gomez (and Marshmallow I guess) because why not.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Series: Songs of Life: Severitus Tales [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1764184
Comments: 175
Kudos: 135





	1. In your eyes

**Author's Note:**

> So! Here we are at the start of Harry's fourth year, thank you for everyone who's made it this far :)  
> Just a reminder, that the eight of them all have communication mirrors and that they can talk using them. They've had then since New Years Eve, but it wasn't a huge story point so you might have forgotten.  
> Enjoy :)

Draco Malfoy walked through the halls of Gringotts with his mother in a slightly strained silence.

It was the morning of Friday the twenty-ninth of July and exactly four weeks since he had last been to Gringotts, on the last day of term, for his mother to split from his father.

Now they were back for the soul purpose of talking to Lucius, who had been ranting and raving since he had found out.

  
  


Steelheart (goblin in charge of the Black House accounts) led them into a conference room where two goblins warriors and Lucius were stood. Draco was seriously regretting agreeing to this, but he couldn’t back out now.

The goblin warriors (there on order of Lord Black to stop an violence) positioned themselves to either side of the pair, facing the blonde man who was sat opposite them.

“Lord Malfoy.” Narcissa regarded him coldly and Draco gave a stiff bow.

“Narcissa.” Lucius snarled, “Whatever were you thinking? Come back with me now and forget this ever happened.” He stood to move towards them but stopped when the goblins brandished their swords.

“No.” Narcissa answered simply.

“No? No!? You dare to say no to me?! I am your husband and you will obey me this instant!”

“You have no claim over me anymore. I am no longer a Malfoy, and neither is my son. If the reason you called this meeting was to win me back, then we will be leaving, because your cause is pointless. Come Draco.”

He made to leave but Lucius called then back.

“Why? Why did you do this? I was a good husband to you!”

“You? A good husband?” Narcissa raised her eyebrows, “I do not see how – hitting your wife does not make you a good husband.”

“If you were a better wife then I wouldn’t have to hit you.” Lucius spat.

Now Narcissa was getting annoyed, “What more did you want from me? I was a perfect society wife - I provided an heir – everything that was required of me. You hit me because I would not be your plaything. I am not now – nor will I ever be – your plaything, Lucius Malfoy. To answer your question, I am leaving because you are putting my son in danger. Shaping him to be like you and bow to the Dark Lord is not what I want for my son – I am saving him while I still can.”

“The Dark Lord gives us power and position! I would be congratulated for giving him my heir. Draco, you could make me proud by joining me.”

Draco stood tall and looked his father in the eye, “You bow to a half-blood who is pretending to be a pureblood.”

Lucius spluttered and turned red, but he ignored it and continued, “You would throw me, your own son, into a position where I have to kill and torture innocents just so that you can have more money than you already do and pretend that you are better than everyone else just because you encourage incest! I will not be forced into a pureblood marriage and I will stand up for halfblood and muggleborns because they are just as good if not better than us. You have tried to force me down a path I do not want, and I will not go!”

“Then I am glad that you are no longer my heir, if you believe that. You will lead the world to ruin and destroy the legacy of our ancestors!”

“Change will not destroy this world, fighting change will. You can try and bring the Dark Lord back all you want, but I stand with Harry Potter and his friends - I no longer consider you my father!”

“Why you little –“ Lucius lunged for him only to be pushed backwards when the sharp end of two swords came for him, “I will destroy you for this! Mark my words, you will regret the day that you made me a laughingstock!”

Narcissa pulled her son to her side and regarded her former-husband strongly but coldly, “You will do no such thing Lucius Malfoy. We are protected by Lord Black and my son is his heir. Would you really risk attacking the biggest and most powerful family in the country?”

Lucius sneered, but Narcissa continued, “I have taken nothing material from you other than your heir, who is my son first and heir second. I could have taken half of you material possessions in compensation for your actions, but all I took was my wardrobe and my dowry. I loved you once, Lucius, and for that I leave you with wealth and reputation intact.”

Narcissa's stare turned fierce, “The only other thing I took was evidence of you Death Eater activities. If you lay a finger on any of my family or attack us in any way - politically, physically, socially or otherwise – I will be taking that evidence straight to the head of the DMLE – she own Lord Black a favour coincidently. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”

Lucius made no reply, but Narcissa could see the fear flickering on his face, “I believe that I have made the desired impression. We are leaving now and if I were you, I would stop any rumours before they get to me or you will find yourself in Azkaban fasting that you can say ‘Wizengamot’.”

With that, Narcissa turned and left, with Draco at her side. The man they left behind muttered to himself.

“I may not be able to get you for a while, but I’m willing to wait for it. You will regret this, mark my words, you will regret the day you made me a laughing stock.” But his oath fell on deaf ears.

  
  


  
  


Back at Grimmauld place, Draco gave his mother a quick hug then went to his bedroom, cuddling up in his bed and pulling out his communication mirror – which he had used regularly to talk to everyone, especially Hermione.

“Activate, Hermione.”

Immediately, Hermione’s concerned face appeared in the mirror.

“Draco, how did it go? Are you okay?”

“It – I…” he suddenly found that he couldn’t talk, and his eyes filled with tears, which he brushed away aggressively – he didn’t cry!

“Draco, Draco! It’s okay. Oh dammit, I can’t do anything through this mirror. Wait for me.” And with that the mirror became normal and he could see his tear-filled eyes, which was the breaking of the dam.

She had just… gone. She didn’t say where or how long she would be, but it didn’t really matter now; Hermione was the only one who he wanted to talk to about this, about anything, but she had just left, and now he was alone.

He pulled the bedclothes closer around him and roughly brushed the tears from his face.

  
  


After about twenty minutes, he eventually got control of his tears and went to his bathroom to wash his face in an effort to get rid of the redness around his eyes.

That done, he moved towards the kitchen to get some lunch, looking through the house as he went. In the month that they had been there, they had decorated all of the main rooms and four of the eight bedrooms; one for himself, one for Narcissa and two spares.

Sirius had already cleared it out months previously – burning all the dangerous objects in a fiendfyre incinerator and throwing away all of the rubbish – which meant that they only had to decorate.

Draco didn’t dislike interior design, in fact he found it quite fun - finding colours and textures that worked together - so it hadn’t been too hard for the two of them to create of more tasteful design; it almost didn’t look like the same house.

  
  


Once in the kitchen, Kreacher set a plate of sandwiches for him. Narcissa was already sat at the table, lost in her own thoughts; he moved towards her and a gave her a hug – something that had become a comforting private moment between them over the years – then sat down next to her.

Neither were really in the mood for conversation, so they sat in silence. It wasn’t an awkward silence, but the events of the morning weighed quite heavy on them; Draco had thought that he was going to feel better after the confrontation, and he did in some ways, but he couldn’t help worry about how society was going to view them now.

When they had finished, they both had a latte – a shared guilty pleasure – in the sitting room and talked about trivial topics.

Suddenly, Narcissa turned to him and asked a question that he did not expect, “Dragon, did you mean what you said earlier? About halfbloods and muggleborns?”

Draco stared into his mother’s eyes, trying to gage what her reaction would be, “I did. I’m friends with a muggleborn, a halfblood and two so called ‘blood traitors’. The muggleborn is the smartest person the year and she would give most of the people in the year above a run for their money.” He couldn’t help but smile at the thought of Hermione, despite the abrupt and painful end to their conversation earlier.

“When are you going to ask her?”

“Sorry?”

“When are you going to ask Hermione to be your girlfriend?”

Draco sighed, deciding to stop pretending, “I…”

Before he could get anymore words out, there was a loud knock at the door.

“Are you expecting Sirius today, Mother?”

Narcissa shook her head, “I’m not expecting anyone. Lets go together and see who it is.”

  
  


Together, they walked to the front door and eased it open to reveal a rather green looking Hermione who threw herself at Draco.

“Hermione?” he asked, incredulously while trying not to drop her on the floor.

“Hey, Draco. Lady Narcissa. The knight bus is a bit of a wild ride.” She gasped and Narcissa let out a small laugh.

“Come in, Hermione, and I’ll get you a nausea potion.”

Hermione nodded and walked further into the hall, still leaning on Draco.

  
  


Five minutes later, a slightly less green Hermione was sat in the sitting room with Draco and Narcissa.

“So, Hermione, I haven’t seen you since New Year’s, how are you?”

“I’m good thank you, Lady Narcissa, how are you?”

“Keeping busy decorating, we’ve finished three quarters of the house now. We were at Gringotts this morning, although I assume you might know about that? And you must call me Narcissa.”

Hermione gave her a small smile, “Narcissa then.”

Draco gave his mother a look and she took the hint, “Very well, when it starts to get dark, come and find me, I’ll apparate you home so you don't have to use that awful bus again.” she wrinkled her nose, “In the meantime, I need to write some letters.” She gave them a knowing smile, gracefully rose from her seat and left them alone.

Draco just shook his head and turned back to Hermione, “By the smile on her face, I’m assuming that she knows why you’re here, but I don’t…”

“I came for you, Draco. I wanted to help, and the mirrors are only good for so much.”

“You came all the way from London, for me?”

Hermione looked straight into his eyes, “Of course I did, I- “

But she didn’t get to finish because Draco lent in and kissed her. It wasn’t a long kiss, but it seemed to have so much meaning behind it. Gratitude, adoration and a hint of passion.

When he moved away, Hermione looked like she was about to talk, but he gently put a finger to her lips.

“Thank you.” He whispered, then flicked his wand to turn on the Wizarding Wireless (the classic channel), transformed into Darrius and curled up on her lap.

Hermione let out a small giggle, then ran her finger through his fur, just as she had done months previously when he had first achieved his transformation.

“We’re going to talk at some point you know.”

Darrius simply let out a content purr, not sure if she was talking about this morning or their relationship and not really caring in that moment.

  
  


After a few hours of content silence and light one sided conversation about what had happened in the holidays so far, Hermione spoke up.

“Come on, as nice as this is, I need to talk to Draco now, not Darrius.”

Just like the first time, Darrius transformed into Draco while still on her lap. He leaned forward, planted a quick kiss on her nose and rolled to sit next to her.

“I am at your service, my Lady.” He smirked, but Hermione just rolled her eyes.

“Why am I here Draco?”

He faltered, “Because you wanted to be?”

“Because I wanted to help you,” she nodded, “But I don’t yet know the specifics of why you need help, I just know that you do. Draco, what happened this morning?”

“Well, you know that we met with my, ah – sperm donor – and his first reaction was to try and guilt trip us into returning to him and when that didn’t work, he moved to threatening us. But we had the power of Sirius behind us and Mother also has evidence of some of his – ah, activities - that he wouldn’t be able to wriggle out of if she revealed.”

Hermione didn’t say anything for a few seconds, clearly expecting him to continue and when he didn’t, she frowned slightly.

“Draco, what you are saying sounds fairly cut and dry, but the person who mirror called be earlier was not as relaxed as you are now. You can’t come to terms with anything unless you let down your walls sometimes. What aren’t you telling me?”

Grey eyes were locked with brown for a few seconds until they shone with tears.

“All my life I tried to be good enough for my father, make his proud, but I was never quite perfect; I didn’t have the right friends, or the right grades or the right reputation. He didn’t care how much I worked; it was never enough. I know now that was because he would only have been happy when he had made me the perfect servant for the Dark Lord and was a representative for his beliefs. He wanted me to be a miniature him and turn against the only true friends I ever had, and you.”

Draco, tears flowing freely now, grasped Hermione’s hand to his chest.

“I wasn’t going to give you up that easily, Hermione. You have shown me how wrong my father’s beliefs are – how wrong mine were – and I will not go along with them now. I promise.”

Hermione nodded and pulled him into a tight hug for a few seconds, then whispered in his ear, “There’s more, isn’t there?”

Draco pulled back from the hug to look into her eyes again, marvelling at her ability to sense his emotions or when he had left something out.

“I’m worried, Hermione,” he whispered, “My father doesn’t forget. He is stuck for now, because we have protection, but he will find a way to get us in the end and the longer he has to wait, the worse the end result will be. He might even go as far as trying to kill Mother and I - or possibly even you - and I can’t let that happen.”

“Oh, Draco, you can’t push me away, I won’t let you push me away. We’ll just be careful; we have a few years at least before he tries to make a move. We can prepare and we'll fine, either way I'm not going anywhere.”

Draco nodded, wiped at his eyes then pulled Hermione close again.

“Hermione, I have a question for you.”

He took the lack of speech as an answer and continued, “Do you know about the Recognition process?”

“It sounds vaguely familiar, what is it?”

“Recognition is basically when a pureblood family backs a muggleborn to upgrade their status. The witch or wizard effectively moves up from a muggleborn status and level of respect to a half-blood status.”

“And you want me to do this?” Hermione asked quietly.

“I want to get you recognised by House Potter. You and Harry would almost become brother and sister. Sirius, as the regent, gives us his blessing and so does Harry.”

“You asked them already?”

“I had to, sorry if it felt like I was undermining you.”

“It’s okay. Why do you want me to do this?”

“Two reasons; first, you want to help muggleborns, yes? In the current political climate, that’s not possible, you have to be higher than a muggleborn to stand up for the muggleborns. I know it’s stupid, but this might just give you the boost that you need to get yourself taken seriously. Second, because we might work better if you do this?”

“We? Are you embarrassed about being with a muggleborn?” Hermione moved away from him.

“No! I promise you that I’m not. Look, it’s hard to explain. But will you think about it, then we can talk again?”

Hermione relaxed a little, “At the camp? That will give me three weeks to think about it.”

Draco was just nodded as a knock came on the door.

“It’s time for me to take Hermione home.” Narcissa called from the hall.  
  
  
  


  
  


The next day, was Neville’s birthday and the group was gathering together at Longbottom manor for a joint birthday party for Neville and Harry.

As well as the main group of eight, Harry had invited his Slytherin friends - Sophie, Emily, Sam and Oliver - Neville brought his two Hufflepuff friends, Susan and Hannah, who he had got to know during Herbology.

Finally, the Weasley twins were dragged along (not against their will) by Ginny and Ron.

Severus, Remus and Sirius were also there as well as Neville's gran, Augusta Longbottom, whom none of them really knew that well making them quite a big group of twenty.

They spent the day (which was unusually warm sunny) in the pool and large garden connected to the manor, lounging, laughing and – in the case of Harry, who had only started learning how to swim the summer before – renewing their swimming abilities.

  
  


By nine o'clock, the adults were gathered in a group having a final drink (responsibly of course) and the only teenagers left were Harry, Neville, Draco, Ron, Daphne, Hermione, Luna and Ginny, who were lounging in some trees at the edge of the garden quietly chatting to each other.

Hermione and Ginny were locked in a conversation of their own.

“You know Ginny, I've been thinking, do you want me to talk to Harry about you?”

Ginny had been swinging on one of the tree branches, but she pulled herself up next to her friend, “What do you mean, Mione?”

“Well, you mentioned going out with Dean, but you still like Harry don't you? So don't you think that it would just be a bit of a waste of a relationship. Like you're going out with Dean just so you can have a boyfriend?”

“Yeah, I still like Harry. But when you say it like that it sounds like I don't like Dean at all; I do and I think we'd be a pretty good match, I just don't think that it would work long term.”

“What would you get out of being in a relationship with Dean?”

“Experience I guess.”

Hermione stared at her and she laughed.

“Not that kind of experience, I mean, what's it's like being in a relationship.”

“I don't think that being with Dean and being with Harry will be the same at all.”

“Maybe not,” Ginny shrugged, “But there's bound to be some similarities.”

“I suppose but why would you go out with another boy if you want to go out with Harry and risk making him think that you don't want him?”

“True.” she started playing with a twig in her hands.

“Ginny,” Hermione pulled the twig out of her friend's hands, placed her hand on her leg and gently asked, “There's something else, I can tell, what is it?”

“Maybe,” she sighed, “I have a good friendship with Harry and what happens if we get into a relationship and it doesn't work. What are the chances of my first boyfriend being 'the one'? I don't want to ruin what we already have by taking it further or trying to take it further if he doesn't want to – that will just make it awkward.”

“Which is why I offered to talk to him for you, but I'll only do that if you're serious. Harry is like a brother to me and I have to look out for him too.”

“You've always wanted a brother, haven't you?”

Hermione nodded with a smile and Ginny gave her a small hug.

“But to answer your question, I think that I am serious. My relationship with Harry has changed so much over the past two years. He was always this celebrity who I just had a crush on, then I met him and that gradually went away – he's not the-boy-who-lived anymore, he's Harry; my friend who is smart and funny and caring – but it slowly became a different type of crush, I'm attracted to Harry, not the-boy-who-lived.”

“And that makes it so much better, Ginny. You've both changed and matured and you're pursing Harry for the right reasons now. And for the record, I think that he does like you; he has a certain face that he reserves for just you.”

“He does?!”

“Yep.” Hermione laughed, “It's nervous, a little confused – I think that's because he hasn't talked about it yet – with a slight shine to his eyes that is definitely affection.”

“Should I be worried that you've noticed this?” Giggled Ginny.

“Hey, am I not allowed to pay attention to my brother?” Hermione smirked.

“Of course. You have bigger fish to fry, do you not?”

Hermione just harrumphed, not wanting to talk about Draco, and changed the subject.

“Hey, do you know what I heard Harry as Neville earlier?”

Ginny frowned at the diversion but went along with it, not wanting to force her friend into talking about things that she didn't want to, “No, what?”

“Harry asked him if he liked either Susan or Hannah.” laughed Hermione.

Ginny could help laughing, “Really? I thought they were together?”

“Susan and Hannah? Yep, they are and to us it's pretty obvious, but Harry is clearly completely oblivious to that kind of thing.”

“Then it's probably a good thing if you ask Harry about me,” Ginny sighed.

Hermione snorted, “He probably wouldn't say anything for another four years if I didn't. Anyway, you're going to Alton Towers with him tomorrow, aren't you?”

“Yeah, just me and him. And Remus and Sirius.” she laughed, “I can't believe that out of the eight of us, only two of us are going.”

“Hey, I'm the only one who has ever been on a roller coaster and I'm not quite ready to repeat the experience. Daphne, Ron and Neville don't like the idea of being thrown around high in the idea – understandably so – Draco is busy and Luna wanted you two to go alone. Knowing her, she's probably known that you like each other much longer than you have.”

Ginny snorted, “You can't get anything past that girl, she's amazing.”

“Yeah, I wonder how she knows all of this? Is it just body language do you think?”

“I'm not sure,” Ginny shrugged, “I asked once when we were little, but she didn't answer. I don't know if that's because she doesn't know or because she doesn't want to talk about it.”

“Ah well, if she doesn't want us to know then it doesn't matter.” Hermione peered around the tree towards Harry, who was sat on a nearby tree, pretending to join in the conversation between Daphne and Luna, but actually staring up into the tree above him.

“I think I'll go and talk to him now.” decided Hermione, “I'll just pull him away for a bit, are you okay to go and talk with someone else? Daphne and Luna look like their having a deep conversation about something – I think I heard 'Crumple Horned Snorkack' so that sounds confusing to walk into.”

Ginny laughed, “Sure. And thank you for doing this.” she pulled her friend into a quick hug before jumping off the low branch they were sat on and wandering over to join Luna and Daphne.

  
  


Hermione took a deep breath, slipped off the branched and made her way over to where Harry was sat.

“Harry.” she called softly to get his attention.

He jumped slightly, but his face broke into a smile as he realised who had called him.

“Hey Mione. Are you enjoying yourself?”

“I am.” she smiled, “I bet this is this is the biggest party you've every had.”

“Yeah. It's weird that this is most people's normal. I missed so much.”

She moved towards him and squeezed his shoulder, “You missed your whole childhood, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it now.”

Harry nodded and smiled.

“Actually, I wondered if I could talk to you somewhere more private?”

“S-sure.” He immediately looked anxious at the thought of the coming conversation, but he followed her to a bench a few meters away anyway.

“It's nothing bad, don't worry.”

Harry nodded, but didn't really look like he believed her.

They sat and Hermione thought that she wouldn't start with Ginny.

“Has Sirius talked to you about recognition?”

“Yes. He said that Draco had come to ask him about reconsigning you as a sister of House Potter. He also mentioned that Draco hadn't talked to you yet, which I'm guessing that he has now else you wouldn't be asking me about it.”

“Yes, he told me about it yesterday.”

“And, do you want to?”

“I haven't decided yet, I told him that I'd give my answer at the camp, I want to give it some thought. But I would also like to know what you think about it.”

“Mione, thinking about your safety, you're the only one of our group who isn't part of an old and respected family. When Riddle comes back, that means you'll be targetted twice as much as everyone else. He seems to be obsessed with me for some reason, so anyone near me is in danger, and you being muggleborn means that you'll be targetted for that too. Being recognised by a Most Ancient and Noble House will give you just a little bit of protection.”

“So you want me to do this?”

“It's up to you, but I think it's a good idea. Plus it means you will taken more seriously politically until we can break down the prejudices.”

“Draco said the same thing. I just wish it wasn't necessary.”

“Me too, but at the end of the day, it is; so why not go for it?”

Hermione sighed, “What would I get and what would I have to give?”

“I don't quite know all of the details, but from what Sirius told me, it would give you protection, financial backing and more respect in society and politics and in return you would give me your input. You would be a representative of House Potter and your actions would have to reflect as such.”

“So what you're saying is that I get this higher level of respect and all I have to do in return is not make you look bad?”

“Basically, yes.” Harry shrugged, looking apologetic, as if he was asking at lot from her.

Ignoring this, Hermione asked, “What do you specifically mean by financial backing?”

“If you were having financial troubles, then you would come to me and I would help you, or if you wanted to start a business or something like that, then I would give you the start up money.”

“Thank you. Now I have more information, I'll be able to make a better decision.” she paused for a moment then turned back to him, “Draco said that this would make us like brother and sister.”

Harry considered it for a moment, “You're like my sister already, this just makes it more official.” then his face broke into a grin, “There's no-one who I'd rather have a sister.”

He pulled Hermione into a hug as her eyes filled with tears, “You're the little brother I always wanted.”

  
  


After a few moments, they broke apart and Hermione decided to bite the bullet, “Well, as your sister, I feel it my duty to tell you that Ginny likes you.”

In the half dark, Hermione struggled to see how Harry was reacting. His face was covered with a frown, that looked sort of confused.

“I know that she used to have a crush on me...”

“No, Ginny used to have a crush on the-boy-who-lived, but when she got to know you... well, she likes you. She doesn't want it to become awkward between you, but I thought that you should know.”

There was a small pause, then Harry replied, “Thank you for telling me.” then he got up and stretched, “I should go and say goodbye to everyone, it's getting late.”

He squeezed her shoulder then made his way back to everyone else in a state of confusion.

  
  


“Well.” Hermione said aloud to herself, “I guess that we'll know by this time tomorrow.”


	2. In your eyes [P2]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry had a birthday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here's a bonus chapter because there's no point waiting to post them if I have them.  
> Pre-warning: I tried my best to have the rides Alton Towers be accurate for what was there at the time, but I'm sure it's not perfect. I almost gave up and just used the modern day rides.  
> Another unrelated point: now that we have a couple (or two) you may start to wonder if this is gong to become smutty at some point. I am telling you right now that it won't become smutty AT ALL, there might be some implied stuff later on but nothing else.  
> This is mostly because I'm to young to have any experience and also because my friend is reading this – hi Yasmin - and that would be really awkward. If you want smut then I'd recommend finding a Drarry, I don't think that I've ever managed to find one that's not smutty.  
> Anyway, enjoy :)

Early the he next morning, Harry awoke and sat up to do his occlumency practise. It was Sunday, so they should have had an occlumency lesson that evening, but it wasn't going ahead because of Harry's birthday.

The eight of them had also started having pureblood society lessons (mainly from Draco and Daphne with a little help from Neville) on Sunday afternoons, but that had been cancelled for the same reason.

Despite not having a lesson, Harry had become used to doing meditations twice a day, occlumency in the morning and colour meditation at night, as it seemed to help his visions (which had come more frequent) by making his scar hurt a little less.

He had nearly finished organising his memories and thoughts into his Hogwarts mindscape; he thought that he would be done in a day or two, then he would be able to move onto fortification and hopefully stop these visions.

  
  


As he settled himself upright in a nest of blankets, Elpis awoke and teleported over from her tank to wound herself around his neck.

 _ **Good morning, Little One**_ ; she sent to his mind.

 _ **Hey, Elpis. I'm just about to do my mediations, but I'm going out today, I don't think that you'll want to come with me**_ ; he thought back.

_**Okay, where are you going?** _

_**To a theme park, it's a muggle place with rides and roller coasters, I don't think that you'll enjoy it. You can spend the day with Hermione if you like?** _

_**I think that I will. Why are you going to this place?** _

_**It's a treat because it's my birthday.** _

_**Ah yes, we've been bonded for a year.** _

_**Yes**_ , Harry ran his hand down Elpis' head, _**the best year of my life.**_

Elpis made a snaky snort noise, _**that wasn't hard after the life you've had.**_

Harry rolled his eyes then changed the subject, _**I don't think I've ever asked you, but how long will you live?**_ He asked cautiously.

_**You are my bonded, I will live while you live.** _

Harry's eyes snapped open, _**when I die, you will die?**_

 _ **You are my bonded**_ , Elpis repeated.

Harry didn't know how to feel about that so he moved into his mindscape and forced himself to take a few deep breaths, relax and focus on his organising – deciding to think about it later.

  
  


An hour later he finished his mediation, got dressed ready for the day and went to find Severus ready to go down for breakfast.

“Morning, Sev.”

“Good morning, Harry. Happy Birthday!” he pulled his charge into a quick hug, “Before we go down to breakfast, I have a present that I want you to open.”

Harry was curious but nodded and followed his guardian into the kitchen where they sat at the table.

Severus pushed a scroll across the table to him and he laughed.

“This reminds me of this time last year, when you got me a the Omnis room.”

“Hey, you liked that present, didn't you?” he laughed nervously.

“Of course, it was amazing. But what's this?”

“Well - the same as last year - you have to open it and find out...”

Harry rolled his eyes and pulled the ribbon off, then scanned the parchment.

Severus carefully watched his reaction, not sure whether to laugh or cry when his face froze into a shocked expression.

After a good few minutes, Harry finally found his voice and whispered, “You got the adoption papers..?”

“Yes. I know it's been a long time since we talked about it but I wanted to surprise you. All you have to do, if you still want to go ahead with it, is specify what you want your legal name to be and sign it.”

“You still want to adopt me?”

The Potions Master saw the fear and uncertainty in Harry's face and pulled him into another hug.

He whispered in his ear, “You are already like a son to me; this would just make it official.”

“Where do I sign?” Harry sniffed to hold back tears, laughed then and summoned a pen.

“Here, and you right your full name there. I know you said that you wanted to say Potter, but you could double-barrel it I you want to. I just wanted to give you the option.”

Harry nodded, “I think that I'm just going to stay Potter. But that's only because I think double-barrel names are over complicated, it doesn't make me your son any less.”

“Of course not.” he smoothed Harry's hair (unsuccessfully) and the paper was sighed and disappeared in a flash of magic.

Pulling his son into another hug, his whispered in his ear again, “I love you, Son.”

“I love you too, Dad.” Harry whispered back, as he gave up on holding back tears.

  
  


  
  


As Harry walked into the Great Hall for breakfast, the sight that met his eyes was slightly different from usual.

Normally, the food was on the long table - that the staff (plus Harry) used during the holidays – down the centre of the hall, for everyone to just walk in whenever they wanted, but that day all of the staff were sat at the empty table, seemingly waiting for someone.

When he entered, the whole staff (Harry thought that he even saw Filch's lips moving) began to sing happy birthday to him. He wasn't sure whether he should be astonished or embarrassed that all the professors were singing to him – in the end, he went with a combination.

Severus (wincing at Hagrid's booming and rather out of tune voice on the way) steered Harry to the table as the singing stopped and laughed at his flushed face.

Remus and Sirius stood up to meet them.

“Happy Birthday, Pronglet.” Remus pulled him into a hug.

“We thought that you might like a big birthday breakfast.” Sirius added, swinging his arm in an arc at the still empty table.

“Yeah, this looks amazing guys, thank you.” Harry laughed, “And all of the professors singing to me was an experience.”

“McGonagall convinced them.”

“Professor McGonagall?!”

“She's less uptight then she acts, Pup, we know that; otherwise we would have been expelled by the end of first year. Plus, when she used to tell us off for pranks, she would always have this sparkle in her eye that told us that she would rather be laughing with us than telling us off.”

“You guys are unbelievable.”

“Yep.” Sirius ruffled his hair and pulled him down onto the bench, “Now, let's eat!”

  
  


The next hour was filled with laugher and joy as Harry ate his way through a full English breakfast then went back to his quarters with Severus, Remus and Sirius to open some presents.

Severus gave his a book on silent casting and promised to give him a few lessons on it, Sirius got him a selection of quidditch posters for his wall and Remus gave him a set of books on the basics of duelling.

From his Slytherin friends he got a large selection of sweets, Draco got him a book on pureblood politics while Daphne gave him one on pureblood marriage (which made him slightly uncomfortable, but he understood that it was important) and Hermione had managed to get hold of an ancient tomb for him on the elemental abilities of the four founders of Hogwarts.

Neville gave him a second Flame Lily, as he found out that they grew better in pairs, from Luna he got his yearly supply of dried flowers - to keep away the Wrackspurts - and Ron gave him a box of joke products, many of which had been designed by the Weasley twins themselves.

The final present, was from the Weasley twins and it was the Marauders Map. Harry stared down at it in shock, he hadn't expected the twins to give him the map! There was a note with it that read:

  
  


_**Happy Birthday, Harry!** _

_**We gift to Prongs junior the map of his father.** _

_**We should have given it to him a year ago but we wanted to study it.** _

_**Sorry about that.** _

  
  


Grinning at the thought of the twins carefully studying the map, he slipped it into his pocket, determined to keep it with him always.

Ginny, he noticed, hadn't got him anything, but he didn't dwell on that as he was still a little apprehensive about spending the day with someone who apparently wanted to be his girlfriend.

Harry didn't really know how he felt about it – he didn't really know how he felt about Ginny.

He had told himself time and time again that she was one of best friend's brothers and that she was like a sister to him, but he always looked at her a little bit differently to how he looked at Hermione; he went to Hermione for advice and serious conversations (not that they didn't have any fun at all), but Ginny for company, relaxation and companionship.

Plus he had imagined kissing her more than once; which should probably have been a big clue.

Ginny had been so uncomfortable to be around at the beginning as even he could tell that she had a crush on him, or rather not on _him_ , but on the-boy-who-lived. A fangirl for a girlfriend definitely wasn't the kind of relationship that he wanted

He could see that she had changed; they had a great friendship now that she had got to know the 'real him' but – he wasn't even sure if he wanted a relationship now, was he ready for that?

How did they even work? Did the fact that Ginny took his breath away every time she came near him mean that he wanted her to be his girlfriend? Did Ginny even want to be his boyfriend?

He couldn't conceive a scenario in which someone who like him enough to want to be his girlfriend, but he also couldn't conceive a scenario in which Hermione would lie to him; so, in the end, he decided that he would see how the day went and take that as his answer.

  
  


  
  


Harry flooed to the Burrow with Sirius and Remus to pick up Ginny. He stepped through first (having finally got the hang of gracefully stepping out of the fireplace) and noticed that it was a bit quieter than normal.

He guessed that was because it was around nine o'clock, Mr Weasley and Percy had gone to work while the others, minus Mrs Weasley and Ginny, were still asleep.

“Ginny? Mrs Weasley?” he called and a short, red-head figured appeared around the door.

“Happy birthday, Harry dear, how are you? Ginevra will be down any minute now, have you eaten?”

As she spoke, Sirius came through the floo, so he answered, “We have thanks Molly. We had a big birthday breakfast in the Great Hall.”

Remus came out of the fireplace just in time to hear that last statement, “Wow, I never thought that I would see the day that Sirius turns down food.” he plastered a gobsmacked look of his face, making everyone laugh.

  
  


Ginny walked into the room next, “Hey Harry, happy birthday.”

Harry couldn't even respond, he was too busy staring out her outfit. Ginny had made the discovery of muggle clothing earlier that summer and had immediately got the hang of looking absolutely flawless.

Right then she was wearing the shortest light denim shorts he had ever seen (the sun was still out, thankfully) with vans and an off the shoulder top that showed a little of her midriff both in a sea green that worked well with her fiery hair.

Around her waist was a thin beige belt that extenuated her hips and looped over her shoulder was a matching bag. On her eyes she had a modest amount of shimmery gold eyeshadow and her hair was in loose waves around her shoulders.

He had only just had time to take all of this in when a clearing of a throat brought him back to what was happening in the room.

Mrs Weasley wasn't there anymore, Sirius was laughing while Remus – who was smirking himself – was elbowing him in the ribs and Ginny was looking at him with raised eyebrows. He swallowed at her expression.

“Is there something wrong with my clothes?”

Harry flushed bright red, “N-no. Y-you look beautiful.”

Ginny let out a small laugh, then she took a step towards him, giving him a quick peck on the cheek and stepping back again.

They said goodbye to Mrs Weasley, then the four walked out to the edge of the wards so they could apparate, Harry holding his fingers to his cheek where Ginny had kissed him and breathing deeply as he followed behind.

  
  


Five minutes later they were stood outside the gates for Alton Towers and Harry was peering for any possible view of the nearest coaster. He had only ever seen the small roller coasters that travelled around with fairs and even then that was only from a distance, these were huge!

  
  


While he was looking for the rides, Ginny stared in dismay at the long queues to enter the park.

Sirius nudged her in the arm, “Cheer up, we aren't going to be queuing as much as you would think today. Time to learn the true value of the notice-me-not charm!”

He handed them each a ticket then carefully cast the spell with his wand concealed against his arm (he had clearly had lots of practise) so that they wouldn't be noticed as they walked to the front of the queue.

  
  


They entered and Sirius led the way to the newest attraction.

“Nemesis first, it only open four months ago! And then Corkscrew I think. And Runaway Mine Train!”

As Ginny hung onto Sirius' every word, Harry leaned over to Remus and asked, “How come he knows all this stuff and when did you first come here? I would never have thought of you as a roller coaster person.”

“He knows because he's read all of the information so he can sound smart,” Remus snorted, “And we first came here about a year before you were born, that's when they had just started to build the big rides. And to be honest, the only roller coaster I've every been on is Corkscrew - because that's the only one that was here then – but I'm sure it will be fine.”

He turned and grinned at Harry, who grinned back, “Well, I haven't been on a roller coaster over, so I don't know if I'll like it...”

  
  


Two hours later and Harry could confirm that he did indeed like – nay, love – roller coasters, and so did Ginny. They had been on Nemesis three times now and Harry could see why it was bringing people flooding to the park; it was as exhilarating as riding a broom! Except a _lot_ safer...

Next they went on some of the smaller rides – the pirate ship, the spinning teacups and such – and on every single one, Harry couldn't help but watch Ginny. The way she grinned and screamed on the fast rides made his stomach drop more than the roller coasters did and her hair flying about was oddly adorable to him.

When lunchtime came, Sirius bought them all burgers and they sat watching Nemesis go round and round with its screaming passengers. They chatted about everything and anything as they ate and when they had finished, then went to look for souvenir from the shop as Remus had convinced them that it was not a good idea to go on the rides straight after eating.

Harry saw Ginny eyeing a miniature model of Corkscrew that had a working track and began to think about how he could make it work by magic. He would convince Sirius to buy it for him later and ask Professor Flitwick for help charming at – after all, Ginny's birthday was in eleven days.

In the end, they each bought some sweets – much to Ginny's excitement at trying muggle sweets – and began to walk towards the next ride; the Runaway Mine Train.

When they got to the front of the queue, there wasn't room for all four them to go together, so Harry and Ginny agreed to go first then wait for the other two next to a nearby game stand. This roller coaster was a lot tamer then Nemesis – which was very modern, rather than the older style of the Runaway Mine Train – but still fun and Harry even found himself holding Ginny's hand as they were flung into the air.

They clambered off together, still holding hands, which made Harry's heart flutter as he led her towards the coconut shy so that they could have a go while waiting for Sirius and Remus.

  
  


Harry went first and failed miserably despite the good luck kiss Ginny had planted on his cheek. Too busy thinking about the girl next to him, he only succeeding in making her laugh at his awful aim. Pretending to pout but then breaking into a big grin, he paid for Ginny to have a go and stepped back to watch her.

Carefully, she lined up her shot and hit the coconut (she was a chaser, after all) despite being distracted by the memory of Harry's adorable face of concentration. The ball made contact with the coconut, but the hit wasn't hard enough to knock it off the stand, so she tried again, this time putting more force behind the throw.

She was rewarded by her effort and won a small brown teddy who had a small red heart embroidered on one side of his chest. Quickly, she grabbed Harry by the hand and led his a little way away so that the little boy behind them could have a go.

Loosing herself in Harry's green eyes for a moment, she only found herself when he looked away.

“Here.” she held out the bear with a smile, “For you.”

Harry decided that carrying around a teddy wasn't going to wound his masculinity too much and so took it off her with a smile.

“Thanks Gin. It's...” he never finished his sentence because as he looked up he lost himself in her chocolate eyes for the second time in the space of a minute and made the decision to stop holding back.

Slowly, he closed the gap between them and their lips met for the first time.

  
  


He wasn't sure how long it lasted, as nothing else had mattered at the time, but it ended when a shout laughter came from behind them and a cry of, “At least Hermione will be happy, but now I owe McGonagall five galleons.” was heard.

Harry groaned and rested his head on Ginny's shoulder with his arms around her waist; he wasn't sure when they had got there, but they were definitely there now and he could feel part of her skin warm against his arm.

Reluctantly, he unhooked one arm and turned to Sirius, “Do the professors really bet on our love lives?”

“Sure we do, Pup. Were have to teach you, we might as well make a bit of money out of it. I've got a lot riding on Draco and Hermione actually.”

Harry groaned again and gave Remus a pleading look.

Getting the memo, he turned to Sirius, “Come on Padfoot, I think we need doughnuts now.” he announced and dragged his protesting friend away so that Harry could lead Ginny over the a convenient wall.

They sat together and after Harry trying to find words – any words – Ginny giggled and took over.

“I like you, you know. Not some childish crush; I want to be your girlfriend, if you want that too.”

Harry was silent for a second longer, trying to organise this thoughts, “I do, Ginny, I want this – I want us. But I've never done anything like this before, I have literally no idea what is going to happen.”

“No-one knows what's going to happen, Harry. But I understand what you mean, this is a first for me too.”

“And even if it wasn't, I don't think that this is going to be like other relationships anyway.” Harry laughed.

Ginny cocked her head, “How so?”

Harry just held in the teddy that was still grasped in his hand and Ginny laughed.

“I think that this is a slight subversion of the social norm. You're an extrovert Ginny, you will talk to anyone and you're so confident and badass.” Ginny laughed again and Harry blushed, “You will definitely be the strong one in the relationship and I just want to know if you're sure that you can handle, well, me?”

Ginny was about to talk, but he soldiered on, “Gin, you know me, I'm just worried that I'm, I'm never going to feel good enough for you. And it's not your responsibility to make me feel that I am enough.”

“Harry, I've been your friend for nearly two years now. I know you, I've helped you before and I will help you again. You mean so much to me, I will do everything I can for you and you are good enough for me. Hell, if anything, I'm not good enough for you; your the most compassionate person I've ever had the fortune to meet and just because you were treated like rubbish for eleven years doesn't mean that I don't want to be your girlfriend.”

Harry leaned over and pulled her into a hug, then whispered in here ear, “Thank you, Gin.” and moved away again. He smiled at her, but it was a slightly worried smile and Ginny picked up on it.

“What is it?” she asked him gently, a hand resting on her shoulder.

Sighing, Harry decided to just out with it, “Gin, I don't think I can handle if this moves to quickly.”

“And that's okay, Harry. I'm only in second year anyway, remember.” she teased him.

Harry blushed bright red, “T-that's not what I m-meant...”

“I know, I know,” she shushed him, “I was only joking, don't worry. But on a more serious note; we need to communicate, if you don't like something or don't feel ready to do something, then tell me and we can re-evaluate – please don't keep it to yourself and get all worked up about it. You have to trust me.”

“I do trust you.” he gave a sigh of relief and rested his head on her shoulder again for a second before looking straight into her eyes with a smirk, “Well then, Ginevra Weasley, will you be my girlfriend?”

“Harry James Potter, I will be your girlfriend.” she smirked back before closing the gap between them with another small kiss.

  
  


For the rest of the afternoon, their hands barely separated and they seemed to spend every second laughing together while Sirius and Remus shot knowing looks at each other from behind them – Harry knew they were doing it, but chose to ignore them and instead focus on his girlfriend.

His girlfriend. It still sounded odd in his head, no matter what Hermione had told him the night before or what Ginny had said a little while previously, he still couldn't believe that he was in a relationship with Ginny Weasley.

  
  


A few hours later, they left for the Burrow having spent the whole day on rides and playing games around the park.

Harry was anxious about going back to the place where Ginny's family – including her many protective brothers – were, as he wasn't quite sure how they would react, but Ginny led him confidently by the hand into the kitchen, while Remus and Sirius trailed behind.

“Hey Mum.”

“Hello Ginny, Harry dears. Did you have a good day?”

“It was amazing! Thank you for inviting me Harry and thank you for paying Sirius.”

“No problem kid. We're going to take our leave now, we'll see you back at Hogwarts, Harry.”

“Okay, thanks Sirius.” Harry called after his godfather then turned back to Ginny with a nervous smile.

“I'll be back in a minutes, Harry, I just need to get your present.” before he could object, he was left alone with Molly in the kitchen as she made a start on the evening meal.

“Will you be wanted to stay for tea, dear? We have more than enough food.”

“That's kind, thank you Mrs Weasley, but I'm having a meal with just Severus tonight.”

“He's welcome to join us too if you would like?”

“Mum, they're having a special meal to celebrate becoming father and son.” Ginny told her as she re-entered the room and Molly immediately blinked confusedly.

“We sent off the adoption papers this morning.” Harry explained and Mrs Weasley let out a gasp of delight before running across the room and pulling him into a bone crushing hug that made him flinch violently.

Ginny shot him an apologetic look before pulled her mum off him and leading him into the living room. They sat on the sofa and she held out a small package wrapped in sliver paper.

“What's this?” he asked, staring down at it.

“Your birthday present.” she waved it gently under his nose with a light laugh.

“You didn't have to get me anything but thank you.”

“What kind of girlfriend would I be if I didn't get my boyfriend a birthday present?”

There was an excited squeak from the next room that made the young couple laugh.“

“I think that mum's excited to welcome you the family. Expect more knitting than ever before.”

Harry snorted with laughter and took the small package out of Ginny's hands, feeling more relaxed.

Carefully, he pulled back the paper and gasped at what was inside. There in his hand was a small bracelet made of plaited ribbon; one strand was emerald green, the second was chocolate brown and the third was gold. There was a small gold love heart charm in the centre with their initials in it.

“My eyes and your eyes.” he whispered, “But what's does the gold mean?”

“Well, I just needed a third colour,” she laughed, “But it worked out because gold is often associated with love, courage and magic.”

“Sounds pretty perfect to me.” Harry agreed, “But you must have bought this before I asked you to be my girlfriend?”

“Yes.” Ginny admitted with a laugh, “Which is why I waited until we got home to give it to you.”

“Well I love it, thank you.”

He held out his wrist and allowed his girlfriend to put the bracelet on before pulling her into a kiss.

  
  


After less than a minute, a deep voice came from nearby.

“Welcome to the family I guess. And happy birthday.”

Trying to push down his blush, he turned to face the eldest Weasley brother only to find that four of them (Percy was still at work, and Charlie was in Romania) were stood together in the doorway.

“Thank you, Bill.” he gulped.

“I'm not going to swallow you whole, Harry.” he laughed, “Ginny doesn't need defending, I showed her quite a few spells that mean she can stand up for herself.”

Harry wasn't sure whether to grin or look terrified, so he decided to do neither and instead turned to Ron. He knew that Ginny didn't care about getting her brother's approval, and he wasn't about to break up with her just because Ron didn't like it; but he also didn't want to be at war with his oldest friend.

Ron just sighed then walked toward and gave him a slap on the shoulder, “I trust you. Out of all the boys I know, I know that you'll treat her right.” He pulled Harry into a quick hug and slapped him on the back then turned to Ginny.

“I know that you don't need my permission, I don't want to end up at the wrong end of a bat-bogey hex, but I'm happy for you.”

Ginny stood and pulled her brother into a hug which made Harry smile. He had noticed that the two had got to know each other a lot better over the last two years and with that had come to respect and understanding between the them.

Finally, the twins stepped forward.

“We like...”

“...You Harry.”

“But, if you do...”

“...Anything to her...”

“...Then we'll invent some new...”

“...Spells and potions just for you.”

They gave a pair of evil grins that almost made him tremble, but he managed to squeak out, “After I've been hit by Ginny's hexes of course.”

“Of course...”

“...The potions wouldn't be enough...”

“...By themselves.”

The grins didn't leave and he gave a gulp, “You're right, but it won't be necessary. I won't hurt Ginny, I promise.”

At last, the evil grins were replaced by nicer ones.

“We know that...”

“...But she is our sister.”

Then they turned to Ginny.

“We that you can look after yourself...”

“...But it wouldn't make a difference if you were older than us...”

“...You're still our sister...”

“...And we still want to protect you.”

They both reached out a hand and ruffled Ginny's hair, much to her disgust.

“Yes, yes. Thank you for your concern. Now you have stopped threatening my boyfriend, he has to get home.”

“Yep.” he turned from Ginny to the others, “Severus and I are having a special meal because the adoption papers went through this morning, I officially have a dad.”

“Congratulations.”

“That's great, mate.”

“How do you say it..?”

“...Rather you than me?”

The twins grinned and Harry gave them a reproachful glance.

“Only...”

“...Joking.”

“Professor Snape actually helps us with our potions sometimes...”

“...Because he doesn't want us to accidentality kill ourselves in an explosion.”

Harry burst out in laugher and Ginny added, “He has been a lot better since he became your guardian though. He's still strict but not unfair.”

Nodding, Harry replied, “He's much better. Thank you for the map by the present by the way.”

The twins gave him overdramatic winks.

“Anyway, I should go, I'll see you sometime.”

He patted Ron on the arm and gave nods to Bill and the twins before reaching over the give Ginny a quick kiss on the cheek, very conscious of the four brothers watching them.

“Thank you for giving me an amazing day.” he whispered in her ear and she gave him a smile.

Waving, he called goodbye to Mrs Weasley and stepped into the fireplace.

Stepping out of the other side, he was met by the sight of a smirking Potions Master.

“So, what's this I hear about you getting a girlfriend?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so I want to ask for opinions from people. How do you'll feel about soul bonds? Would that add to the story? Take away from it? Make it too complicated?  
> If you like the idea then which couple; one that's already been mentioned or a different one completely?  
> Just curious as to your thoughts :)
> 
> I wasn't going to have Ginny and Harry be together so early, but someone convinced me in the comments a few chapters ago - shout-out to Cdeniz for that.  
> Let me know your thoughts and hope you enjoyed :)


	3. In your eyes [P3]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry speaks in front of a crowd for the first time, begins to learn the fourth and final element and has a special moment with his girlfriend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTE: I accidentally uploaded this chapter on the end of the last work rather than this one, so you may have already read it. Sorry for confusion! Believe me, I was confused as well!
> 
> Any likenesses between characters and real people are completely coincidental, even names - at least, that's what I'm going with :D  
> Enjoy!

Harry awoke the day after his birthday feeling especially refreshed. He and Severus had had a long – if a little awkward – conversation about girlfriends and relationships the night before and he was feeling better for it.

He went through his normal morning routine; meditations, breakfast as well as practising his elementals and Animagus transformation, then got ready for the day.

Today was the day that he would meet all the victims from the basilisk attacks. There were eleven in total; six from fifty years ago – including Myrtle – four from the previous year and then Daphne and Hagrid on top of that.

Severus had insisted that he keep at least a little of the money, so he had split the sum into thirteen in the end.

He stood in the Great Hall, summoning the courage to greet everyone. There were people who he knew, of course; he personally knew all the victims from the attack the previous year and he even felt a little empathy for Filch’s ostracisation after finding out about his squib status.

There were about twenty people sat at the Gryffindor table, including Remus and Severus who were perched at the end where Harry was about to talking in an offering of their support.

Taking a deep breath, he moved to the head of the table and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention, before starting as confidently as he could.

“Thank you all for joining me today. You are here so that you can hear about what actually happened to you, or your family members, either fifty years ago or in this last year. Quite simply, there was a basilisk living in the Chamber of Secrets.”

There were gasps and mutterings, but Harry held up his hand to silence them, “Please, the danger is gone now, the basilisk has been slain. Fifty years ago, the Chamber was opened by a sixteen-year-old called Tom Riddle, who grew up to be known as Lord Voldemort.”

There were gasps around, but he ignored then, “He opened the Chamber and set the basilisk within on several muggleborn students, believing that they had no right to be educated at Hogwarts. There were five petrifications which occurred because no-one looked the beast directly in the eye, instead each saw only a reflection.

“Finally, Riddle was forced to stop because the death of one of the victims meant that Hogwarts was about to close and he lived at an orphanage during the holidays, somewhere he did not want to go back to. Therefore, he had to find a reason to keep the school open. He framed Hagrid here and was successful in both getting him expelled and keeping Hogwarts open. Knowing that it wasn't safe to open to Chamber again while he was at school, but not wanting his hard work going to waste, he managed - through dark magic - to preserve his fifteen-year-old self in a diary. That dairy found its way to one of our number, accidentality, and it began to possess her, forcing her to open the Chamber against her will.

“After four more petrification victims, me and my father,” Severus smiled at the use of that word, “With the help of some of my friends, found the Chamber after the possessed victim had been taken down into it in Riddle’s effort to kill her and take her life-force for himself. Myself and my father went down into the Chamber and she was already unconscious while the memory of Riddle was growing stronger. He explained what he had done then called the basilisk. My father blinded it but was thrown against a wall in the process, I then killed the beast and stabbed the diary into one of its fangs, destroying both foes.”

There was a stunned silence.

Harry shifted awkwardly for a moment then continued, “As the slayer of the beast, I claimed the profits from it, and I intend to share them with the victims. Everyone here was either directly affected or has family who was affected and so I will be handed out Gringotts vault keys to each of you. There were nine petrifications in total and as the basilisk was about twenty feet in length, you will each get 75,000 galleons.”

There was a gasp then went up around the hall, most of the people in the room had never seen that kind of money before, it was nearly enough to step them up for life.

“There are additional three victims who were affected in different ways, one was killed by the basilisk on Tom Riddles command, one was unjustly expelled and was not allowed to continue practising magic, and the third was possessed by Riddle for four months. Each of these three – or the family of in one case – shall be given 100,000 galleons for their hardships.”

Hagrid began to loudly sob, and Daphne gave him a grateful – if a little shaky - nod while her mother looked impressed. The Greengrasses were wealthy and but even they could tell that this was no small token of appreciation.

Harry picked up a box from the table in front of him and started to hand out the keys to each family. Daphne had tears in her eyes as he gave her the key and Draco (who had come to support his friend) gave him a grateful look.

Hagrid gave him a bone crushing hug and Sophie gave him a small kiss on the cheek while her father gave him a handshake. Colin Creevy immediately introduced Harry to his parents and began to take pictures of the key and Justin Finch-Fletchly seemed to be in shock.

Out of the five original victims from fifty years ago, only three of them were still alive. One was with their husband, one with their sister and the third was there alone. The other two victims were represented by family members, one by their wife and one by their son.

Harry apologised that it had taken fifty years for justice to come but no-one minded after they found out just how much money they were being given.

Finally, Harry moved onto a small, old man who had earlier introduced himself as Myrtle's brother. As he handed him the key, he said, “I'm sorry for the loss of your sister, Sir. And I'm sorry that it took fifty years for the beast to be slain.”

“Ah, don't worry laddie.” the man patted his arm as his eyes crinkled with tears, “If it's not meant to be then it's not meant to be. It shouldn't be too long before I see her again anyway.”

Harry cocked his head a little, “Sir, did you know that your sister became a ghost?”

“What?! I didn't even know that was possible, I'm a muggle you see.”

“Ah, well. Not all witches and wizards choose to become ghosts because it means that they can never move onto the afterlife. Each ghost has a reason for staying behind, and... I think that you might ask Myrtle for her reasoning. One moment.”

He beckoned Remus over and asked him, “This is Myrtle's brother, Mr Warren. Do you think that you could please take him to second floor girl’s bathroom, that's where she di – stays.”

Remus nodded and they moved off together, talking quietly.

People started to leave, and Harry made his way over to Daphne, Draco and Lady Greengrass.

“Lady Greengrass, Lady Daphne, Master Draco.” he gave Draco a quick bow and Daphne and her mother a kiss on the back of their hand.

“Heir Potter. I hope you are well?”

He gave her a nod and a smile, “I am, thank you. I know that this money does not rid us of the events before Christmas, but I hope that it causes the results to not be entirely negative.”

“Indeed, Heir Potter. I'm impressed by your actions; most people would not think twice about keeping such a sum for themselves, but you have shown an extraordinary amount of selflessness. Anything that House Greengrass can do for you, please ask as we are in your debt. Of course, if you would be willing to sign a betrothal contract, that would equalise that debt.”

Sirius had told him to expect this, so he didn't feel to awkward, but Daphne blushed a deep red.

“Alas, as honourable and magnificent a marriage and alliance between House Potter and House Greengrass would be, I would be unable to sign for two reasons. Firstly, I believe in freedom of choice for all; I understand the importance for suitable marriages, I simply have a different view of what a suitable marriage is. I do not think that we should be defined by who are parents are. Someone could be a muggleborn and more intelligent than anyone else in their year – as is the case with my own year. As long as my wife is willing to follow the traditions and understand their importance, then I do not see why who their parents matters.”

Lady Greengrass looked at him with renewed respect, “I have to say, that your words are perfectly eloquent and I respect your views. You mentioned a second reason?”

“Thank you. Yes, I do not think that my girlfriend would be very happy if I sighed a betrothal contract with another lady.”

Daphne and her mother both looked at him with surprise, but Draco just smirked.

“I apologise, I did not know that you are in a relationship. Might I ask who this Lady is?”

“That's quite alright, it is a fairly new development. Miss Ginevra Weasley, the youngest child and only daughter of Lord Weasley.”

Lady Greengrass's eyes widen for a moment but then she smiled, “Then I offer my congratulations.” she gave him a quick curtsey and moved off to talk to Sirius, who had just walked in.

“So, you finally asked her?”

“Yep, after Hermione have me a nudge on Saturday, I realised that I wanted to, so I asked her when we were out together yesterday.”

“As my mother said, congratulations.”

“Thank Daphne. How did I do with speaking today? I hate talking to this many people.”

Draco laughed, “You're going to be Lord Potter, you have to be able to talk to lots of people at once.”

Daphne rolled her eyes at her friend, “You did great for your first time, you'll get better over time and with practise. You have three years after all.”

Harry shuddered; three years didn't seem nearly long enough to learn everything that he needed to.

* * *

After lunch, Harry decided that it was time to try the final elemental: earth.

Since the New Year he had almost perfected three of the elementals, something that there was no record of anyone else doing – ever. Over the last month and half, he had been working on air, but he couldn't think of anything else to practise with it.

He could lift objects – and put them down again, which was much harder – push things, create hurricanes and direct winds in different directions. He even practised using the different elements together in different way and combinations.

Now, he was ready to try the final, and hardest, element.

Calmly, he settled himself on his bed with a nest of bedclothes around him and slipped into his meditative state. In front of him on the bed was a pot containing his smaller Flame Lily, as he knew that he would need a plant to first harness his powers.

Helga Hufflepuff's book had outlined the process as thinking about the inner workings of your body: the growing hairs, the moving muscles, each individual cell. Harry could see how the elementals all fit together now, they were all about focusing on your inner self, rather than reacting to outside forces as most spells did.

Slowly, he took a few deep breaths and began to visualise the cells within his body. Each was miniscule, but each served a purpose - whether that was to make up a muscle, organ wall, bone or otherwise – and each was filled with his DNA which contained his magic.

From his extensive reading of these old books, he had learnt that he had a magical core inside him that centred in his chest and flowed out from there. What he was doing was connecting his core to his physical body through meditation so that they could work together much more efficiently and effectively.

Holding out his hand and cupping the flower with it, Harry concentrated on imagining and feeling the cells both within himself and the petals. He knew that he had to first get his magic to flow consistently into the flower before he could start making specific things happen.

After about half an hour of meditation, he felt the flower beneath his fingers move slightly and he snapped his eyes open. He couldn’t see anything, but he knew that it would be a little while before he could do this meditation successfully with his eyes open.

Two hours later, he had felt the magic moving into the petals a few times but hadn’t yet been able to see it happening – earth was taking a lot long than the other three had.

Deciding to take a break, Harry moved out of his bedroom with Elpis hung around his neck and went to make a cup of tea. Severus was already there, making some coffee.

“Hey, Sev.”

“Hi Harry, what’ve you been up to?”

“Trying earth, it’s a lot slower going than the others.”

“It is notorious for being the hardest.” He smirked and Harry could tell that he wasn’t just thinking about the elementals.

“ _I think that he’s up to something.”_ Hissed Elpis, while Harry nodded in agreement.

“What?” he asked with narrow eyes.

Severus pulled a letter out of his robes, “Minerva gave me your letter.”

Harry cocked his head, this wasn’t unusual – Severus had given him his letter last year too as there was no point in finding an owl to send the letter to someone in the same building, so what was it about this one that was making Severus act odd?

He took the letter and opened it; there was the list of equipment and he skimmed it looking for anything unusual but found nothing. That was until he felt a small hard package still in the envelope.

Puzzled, he pulled it out and ripped off the wrapping, gasping as a small red badge with two gold ‘C’s on it was revealed.

He stared at the badge in delighted shock for a few seconds, he had been made Quidditch Captain?! Suddenly, he frowned, rushed to the floo (Elpis popped away, not wanting to feel the weird sensation of a floo call) and shouted for Professor McGonagall’s office before plunging his head into the green flames.

“Professor McGonagall?” he called.

“Ah, Harry. You know, I think I can allow you to call me Minerva now, not in lessons of course, but otherwise.”

“Thank you, but please, why did you make me Quidditch Captain?”

Minerva frowned, “Do you not want to be Captain?”

“No, I do! But I’m the youngest on the team, the rest are all going into fifth or sixth year and I’m only going into fourth.”

“I am aware of what year you are in, Harry.” She replied with raised eyebrows, “But to answer your unasked question; I like to give the role of Captain to someone who will be able to hold the role for as long as possible and, as seen as you have the necessary talents, I didn’t see a reason why not to give it to you. I assure you; the rest of your team will not mind, they respect you – rightfully so.”

“Thank you, I’ll do my best.”

“I know you will. At least you only need to fill one spot, keeper – have a think about who you think would fit the role well.”

“I will.” He promised before pulling his head out of the flames and turning to Severus, who was standing nearby with an amused expression on his face.

“I’ve been made Quidditch Captain!”

“Congratulations.” He gave his son a pat on a back, “You should call Ginny.” Then he moved back into the kitchen with a knowing smile.

Quickly, Harry pulled his mirror out of his pocket and activated it, the next second, Ginny’s face appeared.

“Hey Gin, guess what?”

“Hi Harry, what?” she grinned at his ‘excited face’ which was truly adorable in her humble opinion.

“I got made Quidditch Captain!”

“Wow! That’s amazing, one second!”

He heard her making her way down the stairs then a cry of, “Mum, I’m just going to see Harry, I’ll be back in half an hour – he’s been made Quidditch Captain!”

There was a shout that clearly came from Ron and at least one if not both twins and a “That’s nice dear, tell him well done from me.” from Mrs Weasley and then the mirror shut off.

Seconds later, the floo flared and Ginny stepped out, red hair flying behind her as she made a beeline for him and threw herself into his arms.

“Congratulations!” she planted a kiss on his lips and grinned at him, “It’s not very often that fourth years become Captain.”

Harry pulled her down on the sofa and they curled together, “Nope, but Professor McGonagall said that she thought I have the ‘necessary talents’ so that’s good enough for me.”

They chatted quietly for a while about nothing in particular before Ginny announced that she had to go back.

“I’ll call you tomorrow.” She promised, then sealed her promise with a kiss which made Harry smile.

“I look forward to it.” And with that, she was gone in a puff of green flames.

Barely a minute later, his mirror vibrated, and he answered it to see Ron’s red face.

“You’ve been made Quidditch Captain?!” he asked excitedly.

Harry let out a hearty laugh; clearly it had taken a lot of effort for Mrs Weasley to stop him calling while he was with Ginny.

* * *

The next week and a half passed quickly, and before Harry knew it, it was Ginny’s birthday, and everyone was gathered at the Burrow (an experience for Draco and Daphne) for the occasion.

The eight of them (plus the twins) had spent the day together - playing quidditch and messing around in the forest on the edge of the Burrow property – then some family had come round in the evening for a big meal, which they held outside because there just too many family members to fit inside.

Ginny was delighted with the roller coaster that Harry had spent hours enchanting to the point where she kissed him in front of everyone (not that it was a surprise to anyone as Ginny had been introducing him as her boyfriend all day) pulling a slightly disgusted look from Ron and a look of triumph from Hermione.

Towards the end of the evening, once most people had gone home, Harry pulled Ginny off and they found a spot to sit together.

“Hey, Gin, don you wanna see what I learnt how to do this week?”

She smiled up at him, “Of course.”

He returned her smile before holding out his hands to a nearby daisy, he concentrated for a few minutes before they both saw the flower rapidly growing in size.

Plucking it out of the ground, he placed it in his girlfriend’s hair and brushed her cheek with his hand.

“It’s taken me a week to learn how to connect with the plants and another few days to work out how to make them grow, but I’m finally making some progress.”

“That’s amazing, Harry - you’re amazing.”

Ginny rested her head on Harry’s shoulder with a smile on her face and looked out at the countryside around them. The brook bumbled gently along nearby, bubbles and colours swirling, trees whispered quietly, grass waved its long arms in the calming breeze and the birds made soft calls to one another from high in the sky.

Everything was so perfect.

“Hey, Gin?” Harry asked softly, as he smoothed her hair.

“Mmn?” She murmured in response.

“I have something for you.”

Ginny pulled back to look at him, “But you’ve already given me my birthday present.”

“Yes, but this is different, more personal.” He rested his forehead against her for a moment before reached his hand into his pocket and pulling out a small package wrapped in silver paper, “Here, Happy thirteenth birthday, Gin.”

Carefully, she pulled back the paper and gasped at what was inside. There in her hand was a small bracelet made of plaited ribbon, identical to the one she had given him, only a week and a half before.

“I wanted us to have the same, so that we are connected all the time.” He explained and he tied it onto her wrist.

“It’s beautiful, thank you.” She placed a small kiss on his cheek before snuggling back into his arms.

They sat, intertwined in each other’s arms, until the setting sun threw brilliant colours across the sky. Ginny lifted her head and looked into her boyfriend’s eyes, then back up to the sky, “It doesn’t matter how far away you are, with every sunset, I will be reminded of you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, what mood was I in when I made this so cute?  
> And what is it with me and copying my own writing in different works? I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to do that :(  
> Haha, I've just realised that I orginally uploaded the chapter containing Ginny's birthday on Ginny's actual birthday...  
> Hey ho! Let me know what you think…  
> Hope you enjoyed :)
> 
> Ps. Because I deleted the chapter, I now can't reply to the comments that I had, so please comment again and I'll be happy to respond :)


	4. In your eyes [P4]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pancakes, investments and the start of a new realtionship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter and the next one are really just a bit of fun, I realise that not much action had happened since last Christmas, but it won't be too long until that changes so if you aren't a fan of the relationship stuff then just stick around for a bit longer.  
> For those of you who like the relationship stuff, it's not to disappear completely.  
> Enjoy :)

A week and a half later and Harry could successfully enlarge any and all plants to epic proportions and he had even started trying to revive dead or withered blooms.

Despite his excitement at his new abilities, there was something else to be enthusiastic about; the summer camp, that he and all his friends were going to, started that day - exactly three weeks after he first started using earth powers.

Harry came out of sleep early and instantly felt wide awake – he had been looking forward to this all summer! As usual, he curled up in his bedclothes with Elpis (who was still a little sleepy) around his neck to do his occlumency mediations.

He had come in leaps and bounds over the past few weeks, successfully building a place in his mindscape that would keep away most of his visions; some of the stronger ones still came through – not they gave him much information other than the fact that Tom Riddle had completely crack - but he was sleeping a lot better now.

The rest of his friends were all doing well with their own mediations, having successfully build mindscapes to store memories with some defences against legilimency – none of them were anywhere near being occlumency masters, but what that had achieved was pretty amazing for only a few months of work.

After an hour, it still wasn’t an acceptable time to get up, so he settled down with one of Helga Hufflepuff’s journals that contained some fascinating details about earth elementals.

He had been reading for a while when he came across a chapter about the healing uses of earth elementals, but just as he was about to start reading it, he heard the sounds of Severus moving around in the kitchen – probably getting himself a coffee if the last few years had told Harry anything.

Jumping out of bed and walking across the room with a happy smile playing at the corners of his lips, he didn’t notice that he had accidentally knocked the book under his bed.

“Morning, Sev!”

“Good Morning.” Severus yawned, “How are you such a morning person.”

Harry raised his eyebrows, “Do you actually want me to answer that?”

The Potions Master thought about his son’s old guardians for a moment then shook his head, not wanting to ruin his son’s obvious good mood.

“Right.” He gave a small frown, then the smile came back, “I’m making breakfast!”

“You are?”

“I am.” Harry confirmed with a firm nod, “Ever had drop scones?”

“Drop scones?”

“Yep, basically mini pancakes; add a bit of lemon essence, couple of sultans, a knob of butter and BAM – perfect drop scone.”

Severus raised his eyebrows, “Can’t say I’ve ever tried them, but I like pancakes. Go for it I guess.”

Harry gave a cackle and rubbed his hands together, “I think that we’re going to need a few more ingredients than we have. Dobby!”

Half an hour later, Harry and Severus sat on the sofa together, sighing contentedly.

“Never let me encourage you to not cook again.” Severus groaned as he held his stomach.

Harry snickered, “One day I’ll make you a cake – triple chocolate of course – you’ll hate me after that.”

Severus just let out another groan and held his fresh cup of coffee to his face.

* * *

A few hours later, Harry made his way down to the grassy area next to the lake that was going to be his home for the next week – because why sleep and eat in the castle when you can camp in tents, right? – to wait for everyone to arrive.

The young women in charge of the camp, Sam Trough was already there as well as Charlie Weasley and a few others who were clearly helping.

“Hey Harry.” Charlie greeted him, “You’re the first to arrive.”

“Not surprising when I live here.” Harry pointed out with a laugh.

“You live here?” asked Sam curiously.

Harry threw her a grin, “Yep, my adoptive father works here, and we live here over the summer too.”

“Oh yeah, Mum told me that Snape adopted you a few weeks ago, congrats!”

“Thanks Charlie.”

“Snape?” now Sam just looked confused.

“Yes, my dad is Severus Snape, know him?”

“Everyone knows Severus Snape.”

“True.” Harry let out a laugh, “He does have rather a reputation, he’s changed since he started to look after me though – I gave him a good talking to about bullying students.”

Sam’s eyebrows rose so high they nearly disappeared into her blue hair, “I’ll believe it when I see it. No offence.”

“None taken, most people react like that.”

She stared at him for a moment, seemingly sizing him up before changing the subject, “So, you know Charlie here?”

“I’m friends with a few of his brothers.”

“Ah, he does have a lot of those.”

Harry smirked while Charlie just rolled his eyes, “That he does.”

Sam nodded with a smile and punched her friend lightly on the shoulder before turning back to Harry, “I need you name and year for my sheet.”

“Harry Potter, I just finished my third year.”

As soon as he said his full name, four pairs of eyes raked his hairline for a sigh of his scar, but he pretended not to notice.

Same cleared her throat after a moment, “Right, thanks. This is where we’ll be camping, so you can help up with starting to set up the tents while the others are arriving - there’s a tent per year. Charlie’s going to great people in the entrance hall, that’s where everyone’s flooing to.”

Charlie gave a mock salute then moved off towards the entrance hall with a wave to Harry, while everyone else made their way towards the bundles that were clearly going to become tents.

Ten minutes later (magic is very useful) all the tents were up, there were ten in total, one for each year, one for the camp leaders, one for eating in and one containing showers and toilets.

Harry moved into the tent meant for his year and found two rooms, each with four beds, one for the girls and one for the boys. He was just coming out of the tent when a flash of ginger came hurtling from the direction of the castle and jumping into his arms.

Shocked, he staggered, nearly falling over despite the person not being very heavy. After a few seconds, he recognised the scent of the perfume and snuggled against his girlfriend.

“Hey Gin.” He whispered in her ear as he stroked her hair.

Purring slightly in response, Ginny pulled her head back and planted a quick kiss on his lips before whispering.

“You can put me down now, if you want to.”

“Ah right.” He gently sent her down and looked around, suddenly awkward when he realised that other people were staring at them – including his friends who all had smirks on their faces.

She grinned up at him, clearly not caring about the staring, “I don’t care if we talk every day, I still miss you.”

He grabbed then squeezed her hand, “I’ve missed you too, Gin, but we have a whole week together now.”

“Yep, speaking of which, the others probably want to say hi to you.” She admitted sheepishly.

Harry let out a laugh and they moved across the grass, hand in hand.

That first day was definitely an experience for Harry, when everyone arrived, they had spent the morning settling into their tents and relaxing, then after lunch everyone had to get to know everyone else – which was hard considering their were sixty people there.

That being said, he didn’t think he had ever had as much fun in his life, he was getting to know lots of cool people, spending time with his friends and basically being able to do whatever he wanted. Him and his friends had even somehow been named official photographers for the camp when Luna pulled a camera for each of them out of her bag.

After tea, Harry sat down with Yasmin and Dani to discuss their hoverboard and other ideas.

“So,” he grinned at them, “What have we got?”

“Well, we’ve decided that we want to open a shop, and we have a plan for it, but we think that’s it’s going to take about a year of full time work for us to design everything and sort out the shop, but neither of us can afford to not be working for a year, so we wanted to know what you thought about that.”

Harry frowned for a moment, then his faces cleared, “How about if I said that I would give you a year’s wages between you, so either, one of you works full time and works on the shop in their free time while the other works on the shop full time, or you both work part time and do the shop part time. This would be in exchange for the shop being ready to open for the start of summer holidays.”

The two looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Harry, “You would do that for us?”

“I would be willing; I think that this is worth it. I’d want to look at your plans first of course.”

“Of course.” Dani reached into her bag and pulled out a couple of rolls of parchment which she handed to him before diving back into her bag and pulling out a variety of brooms, hoverboards and a bludger.

He leafed through the parchment and saw that the pair had really thought of everything; budgets, possible shop locations, production costs, item ideas and such.

Once he had finished, he looked at the objects that Dani had got out with a questioning expression.

“Prototypes.” She explained and he nodded.

“We have the original hoverboard, compete with runes that stick it to your feet as well as built in cushioning and braking charms – we can easily add in height limits and I think that I’ll be able to make it move quicker too, currently it goes around twenty miles an hour and I think I’ll be able to get it up to fifty.”

“Not nearly as quick as most brooms.”

“No, but this isn’t nearly as aerodynamic, and I think that going too fast would be extremely dangerous.”

Harry nodded, he guessed that she was probably right about that, it’s much easier to fall over when you’re stood up on a hoverboard, as opposed to being sat on a broom.

“Next, we have a few different brooms. This one,” she picked up a slim broom made of a light wood, “Is a racing broom. Broom racing isn’t a sport, but we think that it could be very popular. This broom is quick as the Firebolt but it’s more streamlined. It’s long and thin, less brilliant for doing tight turns but perfect for the smooth corners of laps and for changing height.”

Running his fingers only the length of the broom, Harry could almost feel that it was made for speed, he nodded appreciatively then allowed Dani to move onto the next broom; one that was made of a darker wood and had a wide seat on it.

“A traveling broom, made for flights that are to get from A to B, goes fifty miles an hour, wide seat with cushioning charm, weather repellent charms included and easy to direct.”

Harry looked the broom up and down; the seat certainly looked a lot comfier than his broom.

The final broom looked identical to his firebolt; other than the fact it was only the size.

“This is a child’s broom, or a beginner’s broom. This one is for quidditch, but we plan on designing small and slower racing brooms as well as small traveling brooms that can be magically tethered to the full-sized broom. It has built in cushioning charms and you can set the maximum height, anywhere between half a meter and two meters.”

“Wow. Where do you get all these ideas?”

Dani just laughed and moved on, “That’s it for the brooms.”

“This looks amazing, these are some great ideas. Is your plan to create different versions and see which ones sell best?”

“It is.” Dani confirmed, “There are different charms and runes we can use so that they have different features.”

“Sounds pretty perfect, anything else about the brooms, before we move on?”

“Only that we thought about custom designs. If someone wants special charms on their brooms, then we can add them for a small fee and if someone wants their broom to be made out of a certain wood or for a certain purpose, then we might be able to do custom designs – it would cost more of course.”

“Does anyone else do that?”

“Not that we can find, and we’ve searched all over the world.”

“Then I think it’s worth looking into it further.”

“Great, we can move onto the other stuff then; first up, dragon-hide bludger, they’re filled with air, but the dragon-hide means that they can’t be popped. They can more easily blow away in the wind, but as they are designed for children who shouldn’t be on brooms in the wind anyway it doesn’t really matter.

“They basically allow people who aren’t as strong to hit them, and they also don’t hurt as much when they hit someone. Also, it has a charm that means if you point your wand at it, it drops straight out of the air so it’s less dangerous to catch at the end of the game.”

“Seriously, how has no-one already come up with these ideas?!”

Dani laughed, “I don’t know. Anyway, that’s the end of the prototypes, but we have other ideas that we haven’t tried yet, do you want to explain Yaz?”

“Sure. First, we have hoops that can change in height, so they can be placed within lower wards or used by children who can’t fly as high. Then we have water repellent goggles for when it rains – it just makes it so that you can see better in bad weather and finally.”

She paused for a moment and Harry raised his eyebrows at her.

“We were thinking of getting Cedric to sell us his idea of a beeping snitch. We can charm it so you can set how high and fast it can move as well as making it resistant to cheating by summoning charms. That would take a bit of our money away, but I think that it’s worth it.”

Harry thought for a moment then nodded, “I’ll talk to him about it, I think it’s a good idea.”

“Glad you agree with us. Finally, we thought that we might be able to sell other quidditch stuff, posters, jerseys and stuff.”

“Do you plan on doing that from the beginning?”

Yasmin shook her head, “No because we would need to buy the products then sell them for a profit and I think that’s a big risk for the start.”

“I have to say that I agree with you. Having you anything else to tell me?”

“No that’s it from our end, what do you say?”

“I say that I love all of your ideas and that I would love to invest in your shop. How many gallons do you think it will take to start up?”

“Buying a shop, kitting it out, buying the raw materials. Around one thousand galleons.”

“So, if I give you eleven thousand galleons, that is a year’s salary and one thousand galleons for the actual shop.”

They both looked at him in shock.

“You would give us eleven thousand galleons?”

“I mean, I have a few other stipulations and I have to check with the Potter regent, but yes.”

“We can have the agreement written up by Sunday?”

“If you can give it to me in the morning then Sirius and I can look over it and have it back by the afternoon. Can you get an answer from Cedric about the snitch before then?”

“I think so, yes. You mentioned other stipulations, what where they?”

Harry grinned, “Do you have any ideas for names yet?”

“Names?”

“For the shop and for the different types of brooms.”

“We haven’t really thought about it yet.”

“Would you be willing for me to give you names?”

“Can we heard them and then say no if you don’t like them?” Dani laughed.

“Sure.” Harry grinned back, “Prongs Racing Brooms, Padfoot Beginners Brooms and Moony Traveling Brooms.”

Yasmin looked at him quizzically, “I’m guessing those names me something to you?”

“The nicknames of my dad and his friends. My Prongs liked fast brooms, hence Prongs Racing Brooms, Padfoot gave he my first broom, hence Padfoot Beginners Brooms and Moony didn’t like quidditch, so he wouldn’t have been caught dead on a broom without a good reason, hence Moony Traveling Brooms.”

“Well, that’s adorable – I don’t think we can say no to that Yaz.” Dani pretended to wipe a tear from her eye and her friend swatted her playfully then turned back to Harry.

“Any ideas for the shop and hoverboard names?”

“For the shop, I was thinking ‘Flying Marauders’?”

“Marauders? What’s the significance of that?”

“The friends I just mentioned, they called themselves the Marauders. My dad would have loved to know that his son would grow up to name a quidditch shop after them.”

“Damn kid, you’re really guilt tripping us.”

Harry let out a laugh then held up his hands in surrender, “Sorry, unintentional.”

Yasmin raised her eyebrows in mock anger, “Are you sure about that? Anyway, I’m assuming that you have an idea for the hoverboard too?”

“Funnily enough, I don’t. That’s the one that I didn’t think of.”

“Well, I guess we can think of that one. We’ll add this into the agreement.”

“Amazing! I have a final question for you though, where are you planning on having your shop?”

“We were thinking of going to Hogsmeade, because there’s already a quidditch shop in Diagon Alley, but then we had seconds thoughts because Diagon Alley is where everyone comes to buy things like that so we are going to get more customers there.”

“Plus, we aren’t selling the same items as Quality Quidditch Supplies, so it shouldn’t matter all that much.” Added Yasmin.

Harry ginned, “And who knows, maybe you’ll have two shops one day?”

“Maybe, I guess it’s possible.”

“We should definitely just concentrate on the one for now though.”

“Oh yeah, of course.” There was a slight pause, then Harry grinned excitedly, “So, are these brooms in need of a trial run?”

* * *

While Harry was making brilliant investments, Hermione was on a stroll around the lake with Draco. Together they found a fallen log to perch on and watch the sunset; just as the sky was turning pink and purple, Hermione turned to Draco.

“Thank you for not already pestering me about the Recognition thing. You could have been a real prat and tried to force the conversation as soon as we arrived, but you didn’t and I’m grateful.”

Draco simply nodded, not knowing how to reply to that.

“I do have one question, before I tell you what my answer will be?”

He gestured for her to continue.

“You said that ‘we’ would work better if I did this, but you didn’t explain why…” she trailed off and Draco sighed.

“Hermione, I don’t know how the pureblood community is going to react to my not being a Malfoy anymore. I know that I left and didn’t get kicked out, but it’s a big deal – a huge deal – and I don’t know how anyone at Hogwarts is going to react.”

Hermione’s eyes softened with sympathy and she took his hand, “You’ve been worrying about this, haven’t you?”

He was about to deny it, but he stopped himself – what was the point in lying? He trusted Hermione, more than anyone except maybe his mother, and she wouldn’t see it as weakness, would she?

“Yes.” He admitted quietly, “This is how I was brought up and the thought of everyone turning against me when I’m used to being on top – in that crowd anyway – it frankly terrifying.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, almost expecting her to move away in disgust.

“I’m still here.” Hermione told him gently, as if she knew exactly what he was thinking, “I’m not going anywhere.”

They sat in silence, looking out at the lake for a few minutes until Draco began to speak again.

“But to answer your original question, there is a possibility that they will turn on me and if I’m in a relationship with someone who they consider to be a no-body then not only will they come after me, they will come after you too – with much more force because you don’t have a powerful house behind you. If you had the House Potter behind you then you also have the Black House behind you, and you are safe.”

He looked up as Hermione was looking at him and their eyes locked, honey and chocolate meeting molten silver.

“Hermione,” Draco whispered just loud enough to be heard over the rustling trees, “I just want to protect you. You mean a lot to me and you’ve done your own share of protecting since we met.”

“I know, thank you for caring.” She whispered back, “We can…”

“Wait.” He interrupted her, “Before you say whether or not you’ll do it, I want to ask you something so that you know I want you no matter what you decided. Hermione Jean Granger, will you be my girlfriend?”

“Draco Black, I will be your girlfriend.”

He couldn’t stop a goofy grin from crossing his face and he moved towards his girlfriend – his girlfriend?! – so that he could plant a kiss on her lips.

After a few seconds, she pulled back so that their foreheads were resting against each other and whispered, “We can go to Gringotts when we go and get our school things from Diagon Alley next week. And while we’re there, I think you need a new middle name.”

Draco nodded, a soft smile playing at his lips and he pulled Hermione close to him and they watched the sunset over the lake in a content silence, not hearing the quiet clicking of a camera from a certain mischievous blonde teenager who was hiding a little way behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you know what I have learnt from fanfic writing? That I clearly have a thing about eyes – I always talk about them – I just think that they’re so pretty!  
> Ah well, that’s just one of the many things that’s weird about me.  
> Side note: if you’re reading while I’m updating, I change a few of the competition winners so that all the Gryffindor Quidditch team are there. Probably unrealistic, sorry about that, but I do have a reason which may become clear in the next chapter.  
> Let me know your thoughts and hope you enjoyed :)


	5. Summer nights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a fun week at camp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at that! Two chapters in one day, and the third one this week! I really want to get as much uploaded as possible before I go to college in two weeks.  
> This chapter is a little different from all my others. It’s not got much plot at all – in fact, it’s all fluff – but it’s quite fun. It’s mostly just a demonstration of calm before the storm, a normal childhood (as much normal as Harry Potter can have) before everything changes.  
> It’s a bit chaotic but I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it :)

The first night of the camp was a strange one, no-one seemed to be able to get to sleep – that being said, no-one really wanted to.

In pretty much every tent there were games of truth or dare – which resulted in a few of those deep late night conversations that only seem to happen when you’re devoid of sleep, answering the big questions and putting the world to rights – and many pillow fights, the squeals which could be heard across the camp.

There was also that urge in everyone that makes you want to go and find food at two in the morning which led to a congregation in the food tent…

It was four minutes past two in the morning and Harry, Draco, Neville, Ron, Daphne, Hermione, Hannah and Susan were sat on a circle in the boy’s room, playing an odd game of truth or dare that had so far involved a crazed Hermione trying to explain the concept of a toaster, Hannah and Susan making out in front of everyone and Draco sitting in Harry’s lap.

“I’m hungry.” Ron announced.

“You’re always hungry.”

“Yep, but this time I’m super hungry!” he grinned, “Does anyone have any food?”

“You ate the last chocolate frog two hours ago!”

“Which is why I’m hungry.” He widened his eyes innocently and gave the closest person – who happened to be Daphne – a pleading look. She just laughed at him.

“You know what? I’m hungry too. We should go and find some food.” Harry decided, pushing Draco off his lap and pulling himself up using the bed.

“That’s a good idea! Why didn’t I think of that?” Ron asked while Draco banged his head against the post of a bed at the weird ideas of his friends – first truth or dare, then a pillow fight that left his hair in a horrifying (for him, if he been more awake) mess, and now a midnight feast?

Actually, that sounded quite fun, he was feeling a bit peckish.

“Let’s go then!”

The eight stood up and stretched then made their way to the food tent, giggling uncontrollably along the way.

Suddenly, Harry stopped, and Ron bumped into him.

“Ops, sorry mate.” Ron burped, but Harry didn’t seem to notice, he was stood stock still as though he had just realised something deathly important.

“Ginny’s not here! Why is Ginny not here?”

“She’s in the other tent, remember?”

“Oh yeah.” He looked downcast for a moment, then his face brightened, “I should go and get her!”

“Good idea mate! We’ll wait for you in the food tent.” Ron patted him on the back and moved away, stumbling in the dark.

Neville came towards him with a grin on his face that could be seen even in the darkness.

“I’ll come with you.”

Harry gave him a clumsy pat on the arm and they waked, leaning on each other like drunks.

They walked into a tent calling for Ginny and when they saw a mass of red hair, they moved towards it.

“Ginny!” Harry shouted, and leaned in to kiss her, only to realise that it was actual one of the Weasley twins and that they were in the wrong tent. “Ops.” He sprinted out, Neville just behind him, and tried to find the right tent.

“Ah, here she is.” Harry announced solemnly to Neville as they entered another tent to find Ginny and Luna both on top of the roof of a four-poster bed, “How did you get up there?”

Ginny didn’t answer, she just screeched, “Harry!” and launched herself off the bed into his arms, grinning. Luna quickly followed into Neville’s arms, much to his astonishment.

“Hi Ginny.” He giggled, “We’ve getting some food, want to join us?”

“Like a date?!”

“Sure! A date!”

Ginny giggled then looked serious for a moment, “But we need to bring the others, they might be hungry too.”

They looked around and saw that all the other second-years were nodding firmly. Harry shrugged and brought his arm around in a big, beckoning wave, “Common then! Onward!”

After ten minutes of giggles and falling over tent begs, then entered the food tent to find all the sixth and seventh years there already.

“We can’t find any food.” They told him solemnly and Ron began to sob in one corner while Daphne leant on him, half alseep.

Harry’s brow furrowed in concentration for a moment, then he held up his finger to signal an idea.

“Dobby!”

The small elf appeared and didn’t seem at all shocked at the sight of all these teenagers up and about at nearly three in the morning – he looked more excited than anything.

“What can Dobby do for Master Harry Potter?”

“Hey Dobby! My buddy!” (who looked like he was about to cry when Harry said that) “Please can you get us a midnight feast? Burgers, fries, sweets.”

“Pizza!”

“Popcorn!”

Dobby nodded, ears flopping, “Dobby can do this.” And his disappeared.

Just then, the last of the second years came in… with all the first years in pursuit.

“Ooh, it’s like a party!” Harry rubbed his hands together gleefully then stopped, “Wait, where’s Katie? The fourth years?”

“They’re still in they’re tent.”

“We can go and get them.” Announced the Weasley twins who then sauntered out of the tent and appeared a few minutes later with all the fourth years.

“Yay! We’re all here!” Harry somehow got tangled into Katie’s arms before Draco managed to pull him off, facepalming as he did so.

A few minutes later, food appeared on the tables; huge plates of burgers and dishes of fries, bowls of Bertie Botts and stacks of Chocolate Frogs which everyone happily fell upon.

Harry was just about to grab a handful of fries when a bleary-eyed Charlie Weasley walked it, followed by Sam and the other three staff.

Everyone began to whisper to each other, wondering if they were going to be in trouble, but Charlie just gave them a shrug and a grin, “You look like you’re having fun, we thought we’d join you.”

Half an hour and a round of rowdy songs later, there was clearing of a throat and everyone looked towards the door, then froze. Stood in the tent flap, was none other than the four heads of year and Dumbledore himself.

For a full minute, no-one moved, until Harry himself – who had been fully submerged in devouring his burger up till that point - looked up, dropped his burger with a scream and ran across the tent.

He shrieked, “MINNIE!” before launching himself into Professor McGonagall’s arms.

Minerva McGonagall was speechless for the first time ever, while everyone else - the staff behind her included - were busy pissing themselves laughing.

Eventually, she patted the teenager on the head and found her voice, “Are you having fun there, Harry?”

Harry just lifted his own hand and patted her back on the head then launched himself at Severus with a cry of “DAD!”

A few people were a little confused at that, but they were too busy laughing to care and Sam finally looked like she believed that Snape had changed.

Dumbledore, with tears of laughter streaming down his face, finally spoke up after Harry had been around and enthusiastically pumped the hand of the Flitwick, Sprout and himself, “You sounded like you were having fun, so we thought we’d join you. I must say, I haven’t had a burger in about fifty years.” And with that everyone went back to eating.

Harry made sure to get a photograph of one Minerva McGonagall tucking into a slice of pizza with a huge grin on her face.

* * *

Needless to say, the next day didn’t contain very much physical activity, as barely anyone had been successful in getting any sleep at all, just a lot of games and messing around together.

At dinner, Harry sat with the Quidditch team - plus Ginny and Ron – at a table of their own.

“You know what, I haven’t heard anything about who the Captain is. I know it’s not me, so who do I need to congratulate?” Angelina asked.

Harry paused sheepishly for a moment before all four of the Weasleys cried out together.

“Harry!”

“Ah, our little brother Harry! Congrats kid.” Alicia patted him on the head and laughed at his scowl.

“I was surprised, because I’m the youngest on the team…”

“…But Professor McGonagall said that he had the necessary skills…” Ginny interrupted.

“…And that she wanted someone to be able to do it for the most years possible.” Harry finished.

Katie laughed, “I thought that it was only the Gred and Forge over there who finished each other’s sentences. But seriously, Harry. You’re perfect for this role!”

“Thanks Katie. By the way, did you want to become keeper? I sure I heard you say that you would rather by keeper than chaser once.”

“I’m about as good at both, but I do prefer playing keeper, yeah, I just couldn’t because Oliver was keeper.”

“Great, you’re the keeper now.”

“And who’s the third chaser going to be?”

“Well, I know someone who’s a really good chaser. She’s a pretty good seeker too, but that position is taken.” He grinned to himself, “Anyway everyone, raise your glasses to welcome Ginny Weasley to the Gryffindor quidditch team!”

There was a welcoming cry as everyone raised their pumpkin juices and Ginny flushed a bright red.

“Thank you, Harry. You know that everyone’s going to say that you let me on the team because I’m your girlfriend?”

“Yep, but I couldn’t care less. You’re amazing and they’ll believe it when they see it! To the Gryffindor quidditch team!” he cried.

“The Gryffindor quidditch team!” echoed the cry as pumpkin juice sloshed everywhere.

That night, everyone was fast sleep by ten o’clock, not matter what age.

* * *

The next day was declared to be a day for raft building. After all, what’s the point in having a lake if you’re not going to use it?

Harry was in a group with Ginny, Cedric Diggory and Yasmin, Neville was with Luna, Dani and a first year and Draco was with Angelina and two fourth years while Hermione was with the Weasley twins and a second year, Ron was with Katie, Alicia and Hannah and Daphne was with Susan, a fourth year and a sixth year.

Surprisingly, everyone was getting on, no matter which house or year they were in; it was competitive of course, but it was a friendly competition.

“Right team.” Harry announced while wondering how he had nominated leader, “Yasmin and Cedric, please collect the wood for the raft while Ginny and I collect the vines to tie it all together. Let’s go!”

The fourteen teams were all working furiously, trying to build the best raft possible, while keeping up a steady banter with all their friends.

“Harry!” Ginny laughed, “What kind of knot do you call that?”

Harry stared at the massive ball he had somehow constructed, “Urm, a secure one...?” he retorted while Cedric looked on, amused.

“Oi, Gred, Forge, pay attention else I’ll throw you in the lake!”

“You’d have to…

“…Catch us first, young Hermione!” (runs away screaming and waving hands in the air).

“Urgh, enchanting brooms and hoverboards is easier than this, why can’t we use our wands?” Dani whined.

“Because that’s not the point! Embrace it!” (Luna throws hands in the air and spins around in a circle).

“Why are we doing this? I don’t need to know how to build a raft!”

“Quit whining Draco, I know you want to do this really.” Angelina huffed.

Harry heard this and shouted over, “Oi, Draco! Just because you can’t do it doesn’t mean you should give up – you should be used to finding things you can’t do by now!” (Dracon flicks twig at him) “Oi!”

Angelina cuffed him playfully round the head, “Hey Draco, don’t think about it as building a pointless thing, think about it as a competition. Beat Harry Potter!”

“Yeah, I can beat Harry Potter!”

“Well, you can’t beat me at Quidditch, so I’m not holding my breath!”

“Ron! Cannon balling into the lake isn’t helpful!”

“But I wanted to find the squid!”

“I don’t care! Come and hold this!”

“Hey, don’t look at our design!” (launches self onto raft to hide it)

“Ha, we don’t need to look at your design, ours in amazing!” (hair flick).

“Oi! Don’t splash me!”

“Sorry, accident!” (evil smile).

Then the inevitable water fight ensued, and all other competitions were forgotten.

* * *

That evening, they had a huge campfire and it strongly reminded Harry of the birthday party they had thrown for Severus at the start of the year.

Charlie came out of his tent with a huge pole that had a shield at one end on which twenty huge marshmallows were stuck and thrust it into the flames to toast them. While they were melting, he pulled out chocolate digestives and bellowed.

“LINE UP FOR S’MORES!”

Immediately, there was a long line stretching all around the campfire and Harry found himself standing next to Cedric.

“We never did have raft race, did we?”

Cedric thought for a moment then laughed, “We didn’t. I guess we got distracted. We would have won though.”

“Oh yeah, definitely.” They stared into the flames for a few seconds before Harry gave a content sigh, “This week has really been something hasn’t it?”

“Mm,” Cedric agreed, “And’s it not nearly over yet. I heard something about a game of Last Man Standing for tomorrow.”

“Ooh, I bet we could take everyone else by storm in that.”

“We probably could.” Cedric laughed.

“Mm, by the way, I have a question for you.”

“Shoot.”

“Well, you know how Yasmin and Dani created a hoverboard for the competition? They’ve got a whole load of other flying related ideas and I’ve invested in them so that they can start a shop.”

“Right..?” Cedric was slightly confused as to where this was going.

“I was hoping to buy the rights for your beeping snitch so that they can produce and sell it in their shop.”

Cedric considered him for a moment then spoke, “I didn’t have any plans for it, so if you think that you can sell it then I would be happy to make a deal.”

“Great! I’ll talk to Yaz and Dani and we can have a little negotiation, probably later in the week.”

“Sounds good.” He realised that they were at the front of the queue, “But for now, I think that it’s time for s’mores!”

“Ah, you can’t get better than a good toasted marshmallows and chocolate biscuits.”

“That you can’t, cheers.”

They tapped their ‘mallows together with a grin, then dug in.

* * *

The next day was a type of chaos that could only just be classed as ‘organised’.

It started with a huge game of Last Man Standing in the castle, where the teams were the same as the raft building competition (that never got completed) the day before, so Harry was with Ginny, Cedric and Yasmin – a fearsome quartet is ever there was one.

“Right teams.” Charlie bellowed as he jumped on a table in the Great Hall, “Time for Last Man Standing! The rules are as follows: the aim is to be the last team standing, you do that by taking them out of the game – whether that be frozen, tied up or stuck somewhere – use your brains as to what we will find unacceptable. No spells that will cause lasting damage or serious injury, obviously no dark spells. Each time a team gets taken out, there will be a gong sound. The last team standing wins! Any questions?”

“What happens if there is just one person left on your team?” asked an older student.

“That won’t happen, because if there is one person then they can free all the others – you have to have a whole team in order to win – this is about team-work people! Work together and play to your strengths, put together your skills. Any other questions?”

There didn’t seem to be any, so Charlie continued, “Great! A few other things, don’t go in any of the common rooms or dormitories, don’t leave the castle and try not to do too much damaged to the actual castle! Right, same teams as yesterday – you have five minutes to plan with your teams and a further five to get into position. Go!”

“Right team!” Harry huddled with his team and slipped his arm around Ginny while Yasmin cast a few privacy charms around them, “What strengths do we have?”

“I’m good at hexes.”

Harry snorted; he knew that Ginny was good at hexes as he had been a witness to quite a few of them – only aimed at well-deserved targets of course – over the last few years.

“I can cast barriers.”

“I’m pretty good at transfiguration if that’s helpful. What about you?”

“I’m pretty good at dodging and I know a fair few spells. Anyone got a plan for combining them?”

Everyone thought for a moment, then Harry spoke up again, “What kind of barriers are you talking about here, Yaz? Could you create one that would freeze someone when they touched it?”

“Yeah, I could put a body-bind in it.”

“How about, we go to a corridor that gets used quite a lot and put up a barrier at either end. Then we can just hang for a bit and wait for people to get stuck, as they do, we place them out of sight in a classroom and wait again.” Harry explained.

“Then we wait until most of the teams have been eliminated before moving out and challenging the remaining teams. We can practice working together while the barriers do their work.” Finished Ginny, working out what Harry was getting at.

Cedric and Yasmin look at each other then laughed, “We have master planers in our group. Let’s do it!”

“Which corridor? We want one that’s used quite a bit, with a classroom for us to store people in and practise.”

“Wow that sounds dodgy. There’s the one of the second floor, by the DADA classroom – there’s a disused room there too.”

“Sounds perfect, let’s go there.”

The next few hours were chaos for everyone involved.

“Look there’s a team! Spread out and surround them!”

“Behind you!”

“Urrghhh!” (gets tied up)

“Let’s go to the third floor.”

“I’ll look around the corners, cover me.”

“Right behind you!” (back to back like super-cops)

“Hey look, the first team got caught! Well done Yaz!” (Ginny and Harry have a little dance)

“Quick, get them in the classroom!”

“They got Dani!”

“…” (you can’t talk if your frozen)

“Someone do the counter curse!”

“How does she dodge like that?!”

(Luna laughing and dancing out of the way of each spell while having the time of her life)

“That’s the fourth gong! Only ten teams left!”

“We’re doing well lads!”

“Heh, hem.” (pointed look)

“And gals!”

“Oh, come on! Why am I the only one still standing?! Are you guys all incomp…?” (gets put in a full body bind)

“Ass.”

“Wait, there’s a team hiding back there!”

(screams and shouts as they run away)

“Nooooo! Forge! Break free of the bondage that holds you captive, brother!”

“Or you could just free him, using - you know – your MAGIC!”

“Oh yeah. Thanks Hermione.”

(roles her eyes and promptly stuns someone on another team)

“Only six teams left!”

“Let’s get out from these barriers and search for some people to beat!”

“Yeah!”

“Okay, Cedric in the front, me and Ginny behind him and Yaz behind us. Let’s roll!”

“Look! It’s Harry and Ginny!”

“I’ll take Harry, you get Ginny, Hannah. Katie gets Cedric and Angelina go for Yasmin. Go team!”

“Katie!” (gets tied up)

“Can you free her?”

(stunners get both of them)

“Just you against all of us, mate!”

(gets hit by a bat-bogey and a stunner – ew)

“Only four teams!”

“Let’s move towards the Great Hall!”

“I just heard someone around the corner.”

“All send stunners at the same time. Go!”

“Three teams!”

“Urgh! How did you get up there!?”

“That’s for me to know and you to never find out! Have fun being tied up!”

“Just one other team to beat!”

“Oh no! It’s Hermione and the twins! We have to try and beat Hermione and the twins!”

“How shall we do this?”

“Ginny!”

“Harry, look out!”

“Shoot, just me and you Ced. Get the second-year!”

“Mwahaha! No-one can beat Gred and Forge!”

“Hey, I’m helping too!”

“Of course, you are Hermione. Now, stunners on three. Three!”

“Yes! Victory!”

“Urm, Charlie… Do we now have to go and find everyone so we can free them?”

“Oh, yeah. Didn’t really think of that.”

Half an hour later everyone was accounted for in the Great Hall for a butterbeer and the award ceremony.

Charlie took to the table again.

“Please would Hermione, Lucy, Gred and Feorge join me up here!”

Draco gave Hermione up (a perfect gentlemen) while Fred and George launched off each other and ran the length of the table.

“Congratulations to the runners up of Last Man Standing, Harry, Ginny, Cedric and Yasmin. Let’s give them a round of applause for using clever barriers to catch teams!”

There was a defending noise as everyone banged on the tables and stomped their feet.

When the noise lessoned, Charlie spoke again, “But here are the winners! Hermione, Lucy, Fred, George, you won by using lots of simple stunners as well as some of your own creations that mum would kill you for having made, if she knew - you’ve each won five galleons to spend at the Quidditch World Cup the day after tomorrow!”

* * *

As the sun was beginning to throw brilliant colours across the sky on the evening before the Quidditch World Cup, Harry and Ginny were taking a stroll around the lake, hand in hand.

They were walking in a comfortable silence as they gently swung their hands and took note of how peaceful and quiet everything was.

Quietly, Ginny began to hum a gentle tune to herself, enjoying how the sound carried across the ground.

After listening with a smile for a few minutes, Harry asked, “What are you humming?”

Ginny gave a soft smile, “A little song my gran used to sing to me when I was little, it’s a kind of fairy tale nursery rhyme about a soldier, a poet and a ruler. I loved it, I’d ask her to sing it over and over. She had the sweetest voice, she said I got it from her.” She looked sad for a moment until Harry squeezed her hand.

“Will you sing it for me? I might be able to join in.”

“I’ll sing it all, then break it down.”

“Sounds great. I can’t promise that I’ll be much good, I’ve never tried singing before – although I’ve always wanted to have a go at playing the guitar.”

“Really?”

“Yep. I saw a homeless guy playing one on the street once, and I wanted to give him some money, but I didn’t have any myself. I stayed behind to listen, and it was the best thing I ever heard, but when my aunt and uncle came back for me… Let’s just say that was the first time I didn’t see the light of day for two weeks.”

A flash of anger ripped through Ginny, but it turned to sympathy when she saw her boyfriend’s sad smile - it was obviously still a positive memory, despite the punishment he had received. She sat down on the grass facing the lake, pulled him down next to her and gave him a long hug before opening her mouth to sing in a clear, sweet voice.

**“There will come a soldier,**

**Who carried a mighty sword.**

**He will tear your city down, o lei o lai o lord,**

**O lei, o lai, o lei, o lord.**

**He will tear your city down, o lei o lai o lord.”**

She paused and looked over at Harry, who had a look of awe on his face as he listened.

**“There will come a poet,**

**Whose weapon is his word.**

**He will say you with his tongue, o lei o lai o lord,**

**O lei, o lai, o lei, o lord.**

**He will say you with his tongue, o lei o lai o lord.”**

This time, Harry was tapping his foot along to the beat and he stared over the water, making Ginny smiled as she readied herself for the third and final verse.

**“There will come a rule,**

**Whose brow is laid in thorn.**

**Smeared with oil like David's boy, o lei o lai o lord,**

**O lei, o lai, o lei, o lord.**

**Smeared with oil like David's boy, o lei o lai o lord.”**

As she finished, she realised that Harry had been humming along to the last verse and he gave him an appreciative smile.

“That was amazing.” He told her earnestly, “And you have a beautiful voice.” Then he gave a laugh, “And that song is very you – it’s not about princesses or damsels in distress, it’s fun and daring, but still beautiful.”

“Ah, I knew there was a reason I picked you for a boyfriend. You do the job better than everyone I’ve ever met.” She joked and she rested her head on his shoulder, “Thank you, love. Now, shall we hear what your voice is like?” she gave him a pleading look through her eyelashes.

He laughed easily at her mock pleading, “Go on then.” He cleared his throat and tried to remember how the song started.

**“There will come a soldier,**

**Who carried a mighty sword.**

**He will tear your city down, o lei o lai o lord,**

**O lei, o lai, o lei, o lord.**

**He will tear your city down, o lei o lai o lord.”**

He sang clearly and had a slightly deeper and smoother voice than Ginny, but he made the song sound just as sweet.

Recovering from the mild shock of Harry singing so well, Ginny led them in the second verse while they both tapped along to their voices. They balanced well, Harry being exactly a key lower than Ginny, and their singing filled the silence with a joyous sound that the very trees and water around them seemed to be listening to in awe.

When they reach the final verse, Harry pulled Ginny up and they danced around in a circle together with light, springy steps.

The setting sun cast an orange glow over them as the song came to the end and Harry gave a low bow while Ginny dipped in a cheeky curtsey.

They left for the camp, hands swinging gently again as they laughed together, humming and dancing, not noticing the mischievous blonde who was hiding to get the perfect shot of the couple silhouetted in front of the low sun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if you found this funny at all because I did :D  
> I know that lots of people don’t like Hinny in canon – although it’s much worse in the films – but I hope I’m making it that much better, so that it works at least.  
> The song is Soldier, Poet, King by The Oh Hellos. I’m aware that the song wouldn’t actually have been around then, but I’m making it into a kind of old little fairy tale song that will be popping up occasionally in the future.  
> Just a fun chapter for you, hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it :)


	6. Summer nights [P2]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Quidditch World Cup and a meeting at Gringotts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I’m really uploading at lot at the moment :)  
> This is the last chapter before school starts.  
> Disclaimer: No, I don’t know exactly how people are introduced, but this is what I’m going with and this is going to be how it stays for consistency. All I know is from Downton Abbey, sorry about that.  
> Bonus: Can you find the Downton Abbey reference? :))))))))  
> Enjoy!

The whole camp was in a state of excitement and anticipation as they waited for the start of the Quidditch World Cup.

Even the people who weren’t huge fans of Quidditch, like Hermione and Neville, found themselves waiting with bated breath for the chance to see two world class teams play against one another.

The group of fifty-six was split between the five camp leaders, so that all the students could be accounted for and all the third years, as well as Luna and Ginny were in the control of Charlie.

They portkeyed in together as a group of eleven and then began to wander through the tents, stopping to talk to people that they knew and buy things from venders. Because they got their tickets straight from the Ministry, they only had to arrive two hours before the start of the game, so they had about an hour and a half to wand and enjoy the sights.

Harry and Hermione found it especially funny watching people trying to blend into the muggle world when they had clearly never paid attention to what the other half of the country found normal. There was one man wearing a kilt and a raincoat, another wearing a nightdress and a third wearing what looked like a chain mail vest…?

Besides some unusual outfits, there were other things going on that Harry would have found extremely odd five years ago, before he knew about magic. Things like fires made of blue flames, a whole family of about ten people coming out of a two-person tent and that every tent seemed to be either all green and white (in support for Ireland) or all black and scarlet (in support for Bulgaria).

There were thousands of people and hundreds of tents, some of which had been here for two weeks because, according to Charlie, people with the cheapest tickets had to be there very early on so that the muggles didn’t get confused (anymore than they already were) by the huge numbers of people appearing on the same day.

After they’d been wandering a little over an hour, they found Sirius and Ludo Bagman (who was wearing bright yellow and black quidditch robes that were a little stretched – apparently he had been part of the Wimborne Wasps when he was younger) walking around.

“Sirius!” Harry ran up to give his godfather a quick hug before turning and nodding to the other man, “Mr Bagman.”

“Ah, Harry Potter. You’re here with the camp, aren’t you?”

“I am, Sir.”

“Excellent, excellent.” He replied absently then wandered off, allowing Harry to turn his attention back to Sirius.

“I didn’t know you were going to be here! How was France?”

(he had been in France for the last week to visit the Ministry of Magic there but wouldn’t tell Harry why)

“Hey pup. I didn’t have a seat, but I made a friend in the French Ministry, Lord Antoine Delacour and he had a spare ticket, so he invited me. To answer your question, my trip went very well thank and before you ask, no I will not tell you what I was doing.” He gave a grin and ruffled Harry’s hair, “You’ll find out at the welcome feast.”

“So, it has something to do with Hogwarts too?”

Sirius just gave him an infuriating grin and zipped his mouth, “I’m in the Ministers box, just above where you’re sitting, so I’ll bring him to introduce to you – making a good impression on an important person in the French Ministry is an opportune idea.”

Harry nodded, “Sounds good. We might be able to come now, I think that we have everything we need – we certainly have enough food – but I’ll just ask Charlie.”

He called everyone over then began to make introductions, “Everyone, this is Lord Black – or Sirius as he will ask you to call him – my godfather. Padfoot, you know Draco, Daphne, Luna, Hermione, Neville, Ron and Ginny. This is the second oldest Weasley brother, Charlie, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott.”

Everyone did their first introduction of bows or curtseys or kisses to the back of the hand, then they came back to the conversation at hand.

“Is it time to go to the stadium yet, Charlie? Sirius wants to introduce me to someone.”

Charlie checked his watch, “Sure thing. We have complementary omnioculars, so we can pick them up on the way. Lead the way, Lord Black.”

The made their way through a forest, down a path that was lit by flaming torches (Hermione had a good complain about the stupidity of putting open flames by trees) until they came out of the cover of the forest and saw the stadium for the first time.

It was a huge oval, at least half as big again as a normal quidditch pitch and covered all over, walls and domed roof, in a gold plating. The odd thing was that there was no noise coming from inside it, only from the people streaming in and out.

“It’s covered in muggle repellent charms and a huge sound barrier – we didn’t want the muggles to suspect anything at all.” Sirius explained while everyone looked on in awe.

As soon as they walked inside, a wave of noise hit them, and they could hear shouts of venders and screams of fans. They hopped into a lift (there were bonuses to being with the Head of one of the Ancient and Noble Houses) and made their way to the very top floor – where the top boxes were.

They walked out into their open-fronted box and found sixty seats, all with quite comfortable looking padding and an amazing view of the stadium. There was a vender selling burger and fries and even a toilet off to the side so they wouldn’t have to go far away from those looking after them.

To the side, there was a second set of stairs that led to a smaller box, which Sirius explained was the Minister’s box. While they were waiting for Sirius to bring his friend, they looked out at the pitch. There wasn’t one side for the Ireland supporters and one for the Bulgarian, but there were small blocks of colour that could be seen where groups of supports were sat together.

They were on level with the goal hoops and directly opposite their box, on the other side of the pitch, were advertisements that changed every few second for all sorts of interesting items.

After a few minutes later, Sirius called them over to talk to him and Antoine Delacour, who was a tall man with yellow blonde hair and quick looking grey eyes that had a warmth to them. He held himself with dignity and wore slate grey robes with a small amount of silver embroidery along the collar and cuffs.

“Antoine, my I present the Heir to House Potter and my Godson, Harry Potter.”

“Ah, Master Harry, I’m glad to finally meet you, Sirius seems to talk about little else.” He had a French accent, but his English was perfect, and no-one had any trouble at all understanding what he was saying.

Harry bowed with a smile, “Lord Delacour, it’s nice to meet you too. I hope my godfather has not being spreading anything that would show me in a bad light?”

“No, in fact the very opposite, he is very proud of you. Is it true that you can cast a corporeal Patronus?”

“It is, Sir.” He blushed slightly.

“That is most impressive, my oldest girl, Fleur has only just learnt that, and she is going into her final year this September. Well Sirius, there seems to be other to people to greet.” He motioned to the small group behind Harry.

“Of course, Harry would you like to introduce everyone?”

Harry bowed his head in consent then motioned each friend forward in turn for them to greet Lord Delacour formally.

“Heir of House Black, Draco Black. Lady Daphne of House Greengrass. Heir of House Longbottom, Neville Longbottom. Lady Luna of House Lovegood. My girlfriend, Lady Ginny of House Weasley. Ron Weasley, Scion of House Weasley. Charlie Weasley, Scion of House Weasley. Lady Susan of House Bones. Lady Hannah of House Abbott. Finally, soon to be Sister Potter, Miss Hermione Granger.”

“Soon to be Sister Potter?” Lord Delacour queried when all the introductions were over.

“We haven’t been through the Recognition process yet, Sir.” Harry explained, then turned to Sirius, “It’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about Padfoot – we were hoping to do it before term began.”

“Of course, Pup. I’ll get in contact with Gringotts.”

Just then, the rest of the camp began to arrive, and Sirius and Antoine took their leave to the Minister’s box.

Because they had arrived first, the ten of them got the seats right by the opening onto the pitch which meant that they also had a front row seat to the chaos that was the team mascots.

Ireland had brought leprechauns who showered the audience in their gold and were quite fun to watch dance even if the gold disappeared after a while.

The Bulgarian Veelas were an experience for all involved. Harry thought they looked almost cruel with their sharp beaks and scaly wings as well as their weirdly shiny skin and unnaturally white hair.

The older men in the stadium had all closed their eyes, as they knew what was coming, but Draco and Harry (who were sitting next to each other) were curious and so kept their eyes open to look.

All the men around them who didn’t have their eyes closed got a glazed look and a few started to stand up. Harry watched in confusion as one or two people around the stadium even tried to jump onto the pitch, including Ron until Charlie pulled him back.

After taking an interested look around the pitch, Draco turned to Hermione and whispered in her ear, “I’ve heard that if you’re with your soulmate, Veelas don’t affect you.”

Hermione stared into his clear eyes as she realised what he was saying, then leaning in to kiss him.

On their other side, Harry was looking at the Veelas curiously, he thought that they look almost cruel, but he couldn’t quite find it in himself to hate them – that being said, he obviously wasn’t drawn to them nearly as much as anyone else, except Draco.

“I guess I’m immune.” He mused to Ginny.

“Why do you think that is?”

“Probably a combination of things. I’m nearly immune to the imperius curse as well, so I guess it makes sense. Plus, you’re here and that helps.”

Ginny gave a little giggle, “Glad to think that I’m helping, love.”

“Oh, you are.” He reached for her hand and planted a kiss on the back of it before turning back to the pitch, where the players were starting to fly laps.

The game finished a few hours later and everyone was dismayed by the outcome as they portkeyed back (although Ron was happy that Krum had caught the snitch) but none more than Fred and George, who were howling with disappointment.

“Why are you two so upset?” Hermione asked them.

“We were going to bet that Ireland won but Krum caught the snitch…”

“…but Sam stopped us. We could have won a lot of money!”

“You’re not old enough to be betting yet!”

“Why not? We’re going to be…”

“…of age in less than a year!”

“Not for another eight months. Besides, what were you going to do with the money?”

“That’s for us to know and…”

“…you to find out young Hermione.”

* * *

It wasn’t until the next morning that the news came about the Death Eaters’ attack; Sirius came and told them personally.

“In the middle of the night, people wearing dark capes and masks and set the camp on fire. They left the Bulgarian side alone, but they went after the muggles who own the camp sight – there weren’t any casualties because as soon as the aurors arrived they disapparated. I came to tell everyone so that you don’t hear a wrong version of what happened.”

Then he came over to talk to Harry and his friends.

“Was it on Riddle’s orders?” Harry asked, “Because I didn’t think that they knew he was trying to get back yet.”

“I don’t think so, because they were wearing Death Eater masks, but they didn’t cast the Dark Mark which was something they did after _every_ single attack last time. I think that they had just had one too many drinks and decided to have some fun – their idea of fun anyway.” He gave a small shudder.

“I guess we’ve just to keep an eye out.”

“Yeah, but it’s easier said then done when we have our Minister.”

“Can’t you get rid of him?”

“Not yet, he’s has to do something bad enough for a vote of no confidence.”

“Great, we have to wait until he’s really messed up before getting rid of him. Let’s hope it’s not too late by then…”

All in all, that week was the best week Harry had ever had. He’s spent it with his friends and he’d even made a few more friends in Charlie, Cedric and Dani.

* * *

On the last day before the start of term, Sirius and Harry left Hogwarts to meet Hermione and her parents in Diagon Alley.

They flooed into Gringotts and saw that they were already waiting for them, dressed in formal clothing. Hermione was in the same red and gold robes she had worn seven months previously, but her parents were clearing new to robes as they looked slightly uncomfortable.

Mr Ganger had short hair that was slightly darker than his daughters, brown eyes and light sea green robes while Mrs Granger had hair that was identical to Hermione’s except that it was a few shades lighter, blue eyes and lilac robes.

As they approached, Hermione pointed them out and whispered something, most likely how they were supposed to greet them because they immediately dipped into a low bow and curtsey, respectively.

“Lord Black.”

“Mr Granger.”

“Please, call me Mathew.”

“Lord Black.”

“Mrs Granger.”

“Mary, please.”

“Mathew, Marry. Please call me Sirius, and this is my Godson, Heir to House to Potter, Harry.”

“Mr and Mrs Granger, thank you for joining us today.” Harry smiled and Hermione’s parents smiled back.

“Our pleasure. Hermione has explained to us what’s happening and how it will help her, so we’re happy to do this.”

Sirius nodded with a smile, “Well, we have half an hour before we have to meet your friends so shall we go? Just follow my lead, the key with goblins is being polite, they are very intelligent and us magic folk tend to be a bit too disrespectful for their own good. If it were up to the goblins, a lot of people would have lost their heads by now.”

The Granger swallowed nervously but Sirius didn’t seem to notice as he strode calmly over to the nearest goblin.

“Good morning, Teller. We have a meeting with Griphook to perform a Recognition.”

“One moment.”

“Please, take your time.”

The goblin disappeared and came back a few minutes later with the goblin who had led Harry down to his vault the first time four years ago.

“Griphook, good to see you.”

“Likewise, Master Harry. Please follow me.”

He led them into his office, which Harry had seen once before when Sirius had been showing him how things worked, but not since. It was fair-sized, quite plainly decorated and seemed to be made for goblin proportions except for five human sized armchairs, which the group lowed themselves into.

“So, Master Harry, you wish to Recognise Miss Granger here into House Potter.”

“That is correct.”

“And does Lord Black, as regent for House Potter, give permission for this to go ahead?”

“I do.”

“Very well. This involves an oath and a ring.” He reached into his desk and pulled out a small light-wood box.

The crest carved on the top was of two waves crashing into each other inside a circle; the waves themselves were painted a deep teal colour and the spray that flew off them was a bright silver. Under the crest were the words **‘Άνοδος όπως τα** **κύματα’**.

Griphook saw him looking questioningly at the words and told him, “The Potter motto. The Potter family was originally Greek, although this is actually modern Greek; it means ‘Rise like the Waves’. This also shows the Potter colours, teal and silver.”

“I didn’t realise that the Potters were Greek.” Harry said in surprise.

Griphook just grinned and opened the box to reveal a small cushion on which sat four silver rings and a gap where the fifth ring could sit. The ring on the right was about a centimetre wide and had the Potter family crest painted on to it.

The second on the right was almost identical to first one, expect the crest was carved into the silver, and so was not in colour. The third ring was only three millimetres wide, but it had a small disk attached to it that held the Potter crest, in full colour. The fourth and final ring was identical to the third, expect the crest was not in colour.

“The Headship ring, the Heir ring, the Ladyship ring, the Sister or Brother ring and the final one that would be there is the regent ring which Lord Black is wearing.” Griphook pointed to the small pieces of jewellery from right to left.

“I have a few questions, if that’s alright, Griphook?”

The goblin nodded his consent and Harry continued, “Why does the regent have a separate ring, why not just wear the Headship or even the Heir ring?”

“The Headship ring gives the person wearing it a piece of magic passed down through the family and the regent is not allowed access to this magic. They cannot wear the Heir ring because an heir can claim the ring at age fifteen, but they will still need a regent until they are seventeen. What would the regent wear in this time? The Regent ring gives them power over the finances, with the input of the heir if they are over eleven, and the power to vote but no more than that.”

“That makes sense, thank you. Finally, what happens if a family wants more than one sister or brother?”

“It is not allowed. A House can only Recognise one person, so only one ring is needed.”

“Thank you for your patience. Shall we proceed?”

“Of course. I have the documents to sign here, I will need signatures from all of you in blood. There is a normal quill for Miss Granger’s guardians as the writing done in a blood quill would take about an hour to heal for them, rather than the few seconds it takes Witches or Wizards.”

Hermione read through the document then signed her name, holding back a gasp at the pain. Her parents looked at each other than picked up the blood quill and signed their names, receiving an impressed look from Griphook.

Harry signed next, then Sirius; when they had all signed, there was a flash of light and Griphook held out the box to Hermione, who took the ring and slipped it onto her right ring finger. It glowed for a moment then shrunk to size and vanished.

“If you need to show it, just concentrate and it will become visible again.”

They thanked Griphook then left to go and find everyone else who they were meeting in Diagon Alley. They had left it till the last minute to get their school things, but all eight of them – plus siblings and parents – had arranged to get them together.

“We’ll check that you find everyone okay, then we’ll go back to Leaky with Sirius and have a drink.” Mary explained to Hermione.

“Plus, we want to meet this boyfriend of yours.” Mathew smirked and Hermione groaned.

They found everyone stood outside Flourish and Blotts. Narcissa was there, bus other than that, the adults had left them alone.

“How did it go?” Draco eagerly asked as soon as they got close enough.

“Meet the newest Sister to House Potter.” Harry grinned and Draco pulled Hermione into a hug before gulping as he saw her parents behind her.

“You must be Mr and Mrs Granger.” He greeted them, bowing to him and giving her a kiss of the back of the hand, “It’s nice to meet the people who created such an amazing young woman.” He swept Hermione into her side and she giggled slightly.

“You must be Draco?” Mathew asked with a stern look, despite having a good first impression of him.

“I am, Sir. And this is my Mother,” he motioned for her to move next to them, “Lady Narcissa.”

Mathew, having watched how Sirius and Draco greeted his wife, moved forward and gave her a kiss on the hand then watched as the two ladies gave each other a cheek kiss.

“It’s a pleasure.” Narcissa smiled.

“The pleasure is all ours. Would you like to join us for a drink? Lord Black promised to explain a little about your politics so that we can better understand how the Wizengamot works.”

“That sounds delightful. We were both brought up learning it, so I understand that it’s a lot to take in when you’re not even part of it.” She turned and gave Draco a kiss on the cheek, “Just floo back to Grimmauld Place when you’re done, Dragon.”

Draco flushed slightly at these relative strangers knowing his nickname but nodded and smiled anyway.

The Grangers walked forwards to give their daughter a hug.

“Come and find us at the pub when you’re done, Min.”

Draco turned to his girlfriend when they were gone, “Min? I quite like that.”

“Really? There’s lot of ways you can shorten my name, but Harry goes with Mione.”

“Harry shortens everyone’s name.” Draco snorted, “Mione, Nev, Gin, Daph.

“True. I quite like Mione, and I don’t mind Min, but I don’t want everyone calling me that.” She shrugged, “I always found it a little childish anyway....”

“And I find Dragon a little childish, but you like that.”

“Mmm, true. Let’s make a deal, you can call me Min and I can call you Dragon, but no-one else can.”

“Sounds good.” They sealed it with a kiss.

“Now, who’s ready to go and find some books!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw, nicknames!  
> Anyway, the world cup is just the same, so I didn’t want to rewrite it – this fic is already long enough without having stuff that’s just cannon in it. I thought that the Veela thing was kinda cute, idk what you guys will think, so let me know!  
> Hope you enjoyed :)


	7. Crying with the wolves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Welcome Feast, the first month at Hogwarts and the first Hogsmeade visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so this is the last of the 'not much happens' chapters, I just had the time between the start of the year and Halloween to cover before I could start on the real action. JK might be happy skipping two months in a sentence but I am not, which is why this fic is so ridiculously long. Sorry about that.  
> Anyway, enjoy :)

Harry stood on platform nine and three quarters, staring up at the scarlet train with a smile on his face. It didn’t exactly make him think ‘back to Hogwarts’ as he never really left, but it felt different with all the students and lessons and homework.

He was there early, as he had been the year before, so not many people were there, and it was weirdly peaceful because the late rush hadn’t begun yet.

As people arrived, the crowd became thicker and the noise gradually began to build. He had been there for about half an hour - having a telepathic conversation with Elpis, who was curled up in the safety of his pocket, to pass the time – when a flash of brown, messy hair pounced on him.

“Hi Mione, good to see you again.” He murmured into the hair that could only belong to one person.

“ _Please give her my greetings_.”

“And Elpis says hi.”

“Hey Harry.” Hermione replied, finally letting go and putting her hand into his pocket where she knew Elpis was hiding to run her fingers down her scales, “And hi Elpis.”

“Ought I be jealous? Hugging my girlfriend, Potter?” a drawling voice came from behind them.

They turned to see a smirking Draco with Daphne next to him.

“Stealing my sister, Malfoy?” Harry smirked back before bowing in greeting.

Draco was just saying hello to Hermione when Luna and Neville appeared, side by side.

“Hey guys, I guess we’re just waiting for the Weasleys. It’s a wonder they can ever get anywhere with so many children.”

“Well, I hope they hurry, the trains leaving in twenty minutes. Let’s find a compartment.”

The Weasleys did arrive in time, just, and the twins came to say hello before finding their own compartment and leaving Ron and Ginny with them.

They spent most of the long journey talking and playing games together. Ginny curled up against Harry and slept for a while, getting lots of aws and death glares from people walking by until they got fed up and Hermione charmed the glass to be opaque.

“You’d think they’d never seen a couple before.” Snorted Draco.

“I still don’t understand why everyone cares. They don’t so this to anyone else.” Harry complained.

Everyone turned to stare at him in disbelief.

“Do you really not understand how everyone sees you?”

“What do you mean, Mione?”

“Harry, you’re considered to be a celebrity, you are at the centre of attention, plus people look up to you. You have more influence than you realise.”

Harry groaned, “All I want to do is blend in; I want to have a normal life, not stand out.”

“I know, but people gossip about you and,” she paused and looked a little awkward for a moment, “You’re a desirable boyfriend.”

“What?!”

“Wow.” Ron shook his head, “He really doesn’t know what’s going on.”

Hermione shushed him with a look then turned back to Harry, “They think of you as the boy-who-lived, that makes you desirable.”

“Plus, you’re developing nicely. And those eyes.” Ginny smirked and Luna added, “And the hair.” while Ron looked a little peaky.

Rolling her eyes, Hermione continued, “And once they find out how well you treat Ginny, well, you’re going to become that much more desirable.”

Harry just buried his head in Ginny’s shoulder with another groan.

The Welcome Feast was as it usually was, filled with _heaps_ of food and chatter as people stuffed their faces and filled their friends in on what they had done over the holidays.

When the food finally disappeared and Dumbledore stood up to give his speech, Harry couldn’t help being curious at what he was about to tell them that could possibly have connections to France.

“Now that we have all been fed and watered, I have a few start-of-term announcements. Firstly, Mr Filch has asked me to tell you that the list of forbidden objects in the castle this year has been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos and Fanged Frisbees. The full list of forbidden items, four hundred and thirty-seven I believe, can be viewed in Mr Filch’s office.”

He looked down at them with a twinkle in his eye that told them quite plainly that he didn’t expect anyone to check, ever, then continued.

“I would also like to remind you, that the Forbidden Forest is so named for a reason and that no students are permitted to enter it. Finally, I have a more exciting announcement; this year, we have been invited to take a selection of students to Beauxbatons Academy of Magic to participate in the something that has not been held in over a century, the Triwizard Tournament.”

There were lots of chuckles, gasps of shock and confused looks at this – half of the school seemed to think he was joking while the other half was split between confusion at not knowing what the Triwizard Tournament was and shock at what competing would mean.

“I assure you; I am _not_ joking. For those of you how don’t know, the Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago, as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry – Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang Institute. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the Tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities – until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the Tournament was discontinued.’’

“Death toll?’’ Hermione whispered, looking alarmed.

Harry shared her anxiety – this tournament just seemed to be asking for trouble - but this didn’t seem to be the view taken by the majority of students in the Hall as many of them were whispering excitedly with each other, far more interested in hearing more about the Tournament than in worrying about deaths that had happened hundreds of years ago

“There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the Tournament,” Dumbledore continued, “none of which have been very successful. However, the Departments of International Magical Co-operation in the countries of the three schools have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that, this time, no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger.

“The Head of Durmstrang will be arriving at Beauxbatons with their short-listed contenders on the thirtieth of October, along with Professor McGonagall and a small number of Hogwarts students. Ordinarily, it would be myself going with them, but I have other duties here in England that I cannot neglect. The selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money.’’

‘I’m going for it!’’ Fred Weasley hissed down the table, his face lit with enthusiasm at the prospect of such glory and riches.

He was not the only person who seemed to be visualising themself as Hogwarts champion At every house table, Harry could see people either gazing raptly at Dumbledore, or else whispering fervently to their neighbours, but then Dumbledore spoke again, and the Hall quietened once more.

“Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts,” he said, “The Heads of the participating schools, along with each of the Ministries of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age – that is to say, seventeen years or older – will be allowed to travel and put forward their names.” Here Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage at these words, and the Weasley twins were suddenly looking furious.

“This is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the Tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. The Heads and Professor McGonagall will be personally ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion.” His light-blue eyes twinkled as they flickered over Fred and George’s mutinous faces.

“And no-one who is underage will be allowed to travel to France anyway. Anyone who wishes to enter must understand the risks, be over seventeen by the thirtieth of October and be prepared to spend the year in private study as you will not be able to attend normal lessons due to the language barrier. If you are interested, then please talk to Professor McGonagall before the first of October.”

Harry, for one, was feeling a lot better that the tournament would be an ocean away and not something that he would be expected or pressured to enter – he really didn’t like the sound of it.

As people started to move out of the hall, muttering about only being a few months too young or winning loads of money but Harry just exchanged a look with Hermione.

“Why would people want to enter? People have died!” she hissed, and Harry shrugged.

“I don’t want to enter; I want to stay as far away as possible. I’m probably not good enough to win anyway.”

“If you’re not good enough to win, then I’d definitely die in the first task.” A gloomy Neville responded.

They shook their heads and made their way up to the Gryffindor Tower, the long day suddenly catching up to them.

* * *

The first month of school passed quickly and without incident.

Harry practised his earth powers to the point that he could successfully revive dead or withered plants and make them sprout blooms, seeds or fruit. He had just begun to try and make a genetically identical copy of a plant, starting with a simple vine, so that he could replicate them, from the original or even from nothing – although that would take a lot of time.

Hermione’s birthday had been and gone and they had had a small celebration in the Omnis room. Luna had given her a framed photograph of her and Draco looking over the Black Lake, that she had taken on the camp when they had just got together.

At first Hermione was understandable shocked that Luna had been there for the very special – and private – moment, but Luna had promised her that she hadn’t heard what they were saying and Hermione ended up truly loving it as a souvenir of what she considered to be the best moment of her life so far.

Daphne and Ron had both found that they enjoyed - and had a talent for - taking photographs, so they had spent a considerable amount of time wandering around the grounds together taking photos with the cameras that Luna had gifted them.

No-one had paid much attention to Draco and Hermione yet; there were a few rumours flying around about them, but they had not been to obvious about their new relationship, so no-one knew anything for certain.

Draco and Daphne had taken to hanging around with the other Slytherins in their year - Sophie, Emily, Sam and Oliver - but they hadn’t run into much trouble with it yet.

Ginny and Harry, however, seemed to be the talk of the school. They found it hard to escape the stares (and glares) but they quickly grown used to it (Harry had been putting up with it for three years anyway) and took to ignoring what other people thought of them.

By the first Hogsmeade weekend, the first of October, everyone who wanted (and were old enough) to sign up for the Triwizard Tournament had. There were eleven in total, from every house - mostly seventh years with a few sixth years - but Harry only new two of them, Cedric Diggory and a friend of Yasmin’s (despite him being a year below her) Cassius Warrington.

He didn’t have much to do with Warrington, but he at least recognised him and knew that he wasn’t a bad sort, if only because Yasmin picked her friends well, even though he kept to himself most of the time.

Harry was happy for Cedric, knowing that he would be an amazing champion and that he was looking forward to study in France for a year (the only thing that Hermione was jealous about) but he was more taken up by the fact that he had asked Ginny out on a date for her first Hogsmeade trip.

Draco had asked Hermione as well, and the four had agreed to meet up for a picnic lunch in the form of a double date.

The pair were stood in the entrance hall when their dates arrived. Harry saw that Ginny was wearing an outfit he had never seen her in before, black leather jacket, t-shirt, jeans and ankle boots with slightly wavy hair cascading down her shoulders.

“You look beautiful.” He told her after he’d given her a kiss, “For saying you didn’t grow up in the muggle world, you’re pretty amazing at muggle fashion.”

“Thanks love.” She took his hand, “Now, we’re meeting Draco and Hermione by the shrieking shack at one, we have two hours and I want you to show me everything!”

They got into a horseless carriage and made themselves comfortable before Harry answered her.

“The first time at Hogsmeade is always a lot of fun, I’ll take you to Zonko’s first – I’m sure we’ll be able to find a few things to prank the twins with.”

“Oh, you don’t want to do that!”

“What? Why?”

“If you prank the twins then they will turn it into a prank war, sounds fun at first but trust me, when your voice sounds like chicken noises and your hair is bright purple, you’ll regret it. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.”

“Have you actually got a t-shirt?”

“Nope.” Ginny laughed but Harry looked at her in mock thoughtfulness.

“Definitely something that I’ll mention to the twins.”

Ginny gave him a light slap on the arm, making him laugh.

“Anyway, point taken, no pranking the twins. But maybe we can find something to get Sirius with.”

“Sirius?! If I had to bet, I’d say that he’d be as open to a prank war as Gred and Forge.”

“True. Maybe you should pick our target then, I’m clearly not much good at this.”

“There are a few Slytherins who I know wouldn’t appreciate it.” Ginny smirked.

“Hmm, why do I get the impression that you can be quite a pranker when you want to be?”

“Because Fred and George are my brothers? Besides, I’m better at not being caught than them, I’m too innocent.” She pulled her most innocent face and Harry found it hard to believe that it wasn’t real.

“Oh, what did I get into?” he mock groaned, “I have a very mischievous girlfriend whose an amazing actor.”

“Hey, you can get away with loads of stuff when you’re the innocent youngest child; pranks, flying all your brothers’ brooms in secret and blaming everything on your siblings. Speaking of brooms, when are we starting quidditch practise?”

“You’re not wrong – I’ve found it helps when you have an invisibility cloak with mischief too. To answer your question, the first match is the first weekend in November, and I was planning on starting the training this week. I’ve come up with a few exercises for us and luckily we aren’t losing anyone to France so we’re good to go!”

The carriage stopped so Harry pushed open the door, stepped out and offering a hand to Ginny – he knew that she didn’t need it, but it was nice to offer – before swinging her around happily.

This was going to be an amazing date; he could feel it.

A few minutes later, Draco held out a hand to help Hermione out of their carriage. They had spent the journey curled up together and quietly talking about nothing in particular, but now they had plans to head to the nearest bookshop and peruse for a while.

Hand in hand while smiling softly, Draco studied his girlfriend. She was wearing a mustard sweater that hung off her shoulder a little and looked so comfortable that he would have liked to try it himself, ripped jeans (which he guessed were supposed to be ripped – a muggle thing?) and brown boots that nearly came up to her knees.

She looked amazing and comfortable – he could tell why muggles wore clothes like they did, after buying a whole muggle wardrobe for himself over the holidays he could testify that the jeans, boots and light blue plaid shirt he was wearing were actually quite pleasant.

The last month had been the best for the new couple, they were happy to discus everything, read in silence or study together as they had similar views, interests and ways of thinking – they were confident that there was no other couple (other than possibly Ginny and Harry) as happy as them in that moment.

Two hours later, they walked out the bookshop, with a stack of books between them, ready to go and meet Harry and Ginny. Draco, happy that he had someone who loved bookshops as much as he did, pulled Hermione towards him until their lips met.

After a few moments, a harsh voice interrupted them.

“Well, well. So, it is true, you and Granger.”

The pair broke apart to glare at Theo Nott, who was flanked by Crabbe and Goyle and had an arm around Pansy. Blaise Zabini, Millicent Bulstrode and Tracy Davis hovered in the background, clearly unsure of what was about to happen.

“What’s it to you, Nott?” Draco spat and Hermione laid a warning hand on his arm, tapping her ring to remind him of the card they still had to play.

“It’s nothing to me, but it might be quite important to your father; oh wait, he doesn’t want you anymore, does he?”

“I think you might have your facts wrong, Nott, it was me who didn’t want him not the other way around.”

“Oh really? The ancient family of Malfoy not good enough for you now, Malfoy?”

“It’s Black. In fact, I’m Heir Black now, so you’d better watch yourself.”

For a moment, a flicker of fear could be seen across Theo’s face, but he quick masked it with a smirk.

“And I’m sure that Lord Black is delighted with your choice of girlfriend.”

“Oh, he is. As is my mother.”

“Well, the standard has really slipped hasn’t it. Not enough that you hand out with mudbloods, you want to shag them too.”

“What did you just call my girlfriend?” Draco narrowed his eyes and took a small step forward.

“Only what she is, a mudblood.”

“I’d think about what you’re saying if I were you.” Draco warned.

“And why’s that? She is a mudblood, a disgrace to the wizarding world, and so are you by associating with them.”

“Ah you see Nott, that’s where you’re wrong. My girlfriend, who is better than you in every subject, is, in fact, a Sister to House Potter and as such she is also allied with House Black.” He took another step forward, enjoying the fear that was in his ex-friend’s face, “So unless you want to feel the wrath of House Black – a house that is a lot bigger than yours I must point out – in conjunction with House Potter and the boy-who-lived, then I suggest you leave now.”

Theo glanced down at Hermione’s hand, saw the ring and promptly fled, Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle in tow, while the other three hung back for a moment to give nods of appreciation at how he handled the situation.

After nodding back, Draco turned to Hermione and smirked, “No that problem’s out of the way. If they give us any more trouble, I’ll ask Sirius to write to Nott’s father – he _won’t_ be happy.”

“Thank you for dealing with that, Dragon.” She said softly as she rested her forehead against his,

“Anything for you, Min.” they continued the kiss that they had been interrupted from before Hermione pulled back and took his hand again, leading him in the direction of the Shrieking Shack.

“We’re late to meet the others. They will come looking for us if we don’t go soon, Harry knows that I’m never late without a reason.” Hermione smiled at the idea of having a brother who knew her so well and cared enough to worry about where she was.

“I don’t doubt it, he does tend to rush into things a bit without all the information sometimes.”

Hermione let out a laugh, “You didn’t see what we got up to in first year – he was worse then, believe me!”

“I don’t see how he could be much worse…”

“When we find Harry, we’ll tell you about our adventures from first year.”

“Colour me intrigued.”

“Harry! Ginny!”

The pair were on a blanket with a picnic basket (that had appeared from… somewhere) between them.

“Mione, Draco, Hi! I was starting to get worried about where you two’d got to.”

Hermione and Draco exchanged knowing looks then Draco spat, “We ran into a basilisk infestation by the name of Theodore Nott.”

“Basilisk? Hm that’s new; not all snakes are bad, just the odd evil one. You beat his ass though, didn’t you? And I’m guessing that Crabbe and Goyle were there too. What did you use?”

“My words, Harry. I didn’t even get my wand out.”

“And he fled? Wow, the powerful weapon of words.”

Draco snorted, “All we did was tell him about the ring and he ran. You just don’t understand the political power that you wield, do you? That and he didn’t want his ass handed to him on a platter by his father when he found out that his son had managed to insult House Black and House Potter in one go.”

“Hmm, I guess that the Recognition was worth it.” He grinned at Hermione, “Glad to use my House for the good of my sister.”

She pulled him into a grateful hug then fell onto the blanket and patted the space next to her so that Draco could join them.

Once they were all settled, Hermione turned to Harry. “Draco wants to hear about our adventures from first year.”

“Does he now? Well, I’ll tell you, but first you tell me what you already know.”

Draco thought for a moment, “All we were told was that Quirrell had been doing something illegal and had died in the process and that you saved the school.”

Harry paused as if expecting him to carry on, then when he realised that was it, he broke into laughter, “No wonder you want to know, that’s not a lot of information.”

Ginny looked captivated and Draco had an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

Carefully, Harry considered them, “How much do you know about the Philosopher’s stone?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so, vote!  
> I have ideas for four Triwizard tasks and I'm not sure whether to do all four or just pick three of them.  
> What do you think?!
> 
> Also I'd like to know if other people find it weird/annoying that I talk to interior design/ what people are wearing so much. I won't necessarily stop, because i enjoy writing it at the end of the day - in fact, i already cut down the amount that i want to talk about - I'm just curious as to how many people care about that kind of thing.
> 
> Today is a day full of questions!


	8. Crying with the wolves [P2]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry's name comes out of the Goblet of Fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pre-warning. There's no particular reason that I changed the Headmistress of Beauxbatons other than I've just never been a fan of the character. So, I've created an OC who will be described a lot better in the next chapter.  
> Enjoy :)

Before Harry knew it, the thirtieth of October was on top of them and the school was gathering to wave off the group of students who were spending the rest of the year at Beauxbatons, in France.

The last month had passed in a blur of Quidditch practices (it was weird to be in charge, but they were a good team and knew each other well so it wasn’t too hard for Harry) studies, speculation of who the ‘impartial judge’ of the Triwizard Tournament would be and what the tasks might entail.

They had been given the first lesson off (Harry was delighted to be given a good excuse to miss History of Magic) so that they could wave off the potential competitors.

Everyone was stood on the grass by the lake (thankfully it hadn’t rained in the last few days and the ground was quite dry) staring out at a huge carriage that was an exact replica of one of the horseless carriages that carried students to and from Hogsmeade, but twice the size.

After they had been waiting for about ten minutes, twelve people came out of the castle, their trunks trailing behind them in the air, and headed for the carriage. Professor McGonagall followed by the eleven students came out a few minutes later and gathered before looking towards the Headmaster who stepped forward and held his wand to his throat.

“Thank you all for gathering on this fine morning to help me send-off these courageous Hogwarts students. I would like you to know, before you go, that each and every one of you deserves congratulations at your show of international, inter-school cooperation. I know that whoever our campion is will make us proud – try your best and demonstrate your outstanding skills - remember that you are representing Hogwarts whether you are chosen or not. If everyone would pease join me in a round of applause for our possible champions.”

The whole school joined it, although some were much more enthusiastic as others, as the traveling students climbed back into the carriage and it took off into the air – surprising most of the students as they didn’t know it was possible for the invisible horses to fly.

Harry couldn’t help feeling a little relieved as he watched the carriage fly away; as far as he was concerned, the further the distance between him and this deadly tournament, the better. Not that his anxiety was completely dissipated, but it was slightly decreased.

For the next two days of lessons, he found it harder and harder to concentrate. He put it down to nerves for the quidditch match, but he had never been this nervous for a match so far in advance, not even his very first one (although that might have been ignorant bliss) four years ago.

At the Halloween feast, his stomach was twisting so much that he could barely eat, despite the wide range of special themed food in front of him. He knew that they wouldn’t be finding out who their Champion was until the next day, but the idea of the Choosing happening in just a little while across the channel was enough to have him nervously raking his hands through his hair.

When the puddings appeared, Harry took one look and turned away – he really couldn’t face anything so sweet right now. Suddenly a note appeared by his elbow.

**_Is everything okay?_ **

****

Harry couldn’t pretend that it didn’t give him a warm fuzzy feeling every time his dad showed how much he cared just by paying attention. Pulling a pen out of his pocket (it’s always helpful to keep a pen on you, especially if you’re in the habit of passing notes) he scribbled underneath the writing that was already there.

**_I’m nervous, I don’t really know why,_ **

**_I just feel like something is going to go wrong._ **

**_\-------------------------------------_ **

**_You can come and talk to me after the feast if you want._ **

**_If you’re worried about who the campion is, then you’ll know in less than an hour._ **

**_\-------------------------------------_ **

**_How? I thought we had to wait until tomorrow?_ **

**_\-------------------------------------_ **

**_Ah, that’s what the Headmaster wanted you to think._ **

**_We have a way for everyone to watch._ **

**_Keep this to yourself._ **

****

He looked up at the staff table and gave Severus a nod to tell him that he wouldn’t say anything, then dumped a small amount of vanilla ice cream in a bowl. He felt a little better and he didn’t see how it was possible to go wrong with a little vanilla ice cream.

As he ate, he puzzled about what Severus could mean about then watching the Champion selection, he couldn’t see how it was possible.

Feeling that someone had their gaze on him, Harry looked up to see that Hermione was looking at him with a combination of concern and curiosity. Before he could say anything, the food cleared, and Dumbledore stood up with a wave to get everyone’s attention.

“I would like to say thank you to the House-elves for a delightful and delicious feast as always…” he began, but as soon as he stopped to draw breath, huge bowls of sweets appeared along all the tables, both muggle and magical, including a huge bowl of sherbet lemons in front of Dumbledore.

With a laugh, he popped one in his mouth before continuing, “And now, we have a surprise for you all. By way of an ingenious invention by Professor Black,” he motioned to Sirius and Harry narrowed his eyes, “We have a way to watch the Choosing of the Champions as well as the three Tasks. You will be told about the other tasks as they come along, but for now...”

He theatrically lifted his wand and a pointed it at the doors of the Great Hall, which were already shut. Suddenly, a huge mirror came down from above the doors and settled at a height where everyone could see it.

“This fascinating invention,” Dumbledore gestured to the mirror, “Will activate in a few moments and allow us to see into the ball room of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, where the Choosing of the Champions is taking place. We will be able to see and they us, through a mirror at the back of the ballroom. We will be able to hear them, but they will not be able to hear us this time. Despite that, I expect you to be respectful. Durmstrang Institute have a similar mirror in their dining hall.”

Quite a few people around the room looked impressed, they had never seen something like this before – a lot of people didn’t care about the invention of course, just that they would be able to watch the Choosing of the Champions.

Harry gave a thumbs up to Sirius, who grinned back, then looked at Hermione, who had an almost desperate look on her face. Harry groaned then laughed, Sirius was going to be getting a lot of questions about how he enchanted this thing – he was just glad it wasn’t him!

He was broken out of his thoughts when Dumbledore cleared his throat to by way of a request for silence.

“Before we activate the mirror, I need to explain how the Champions are being chosen.” He flicked his wand and an image was projected above him of a large, roughly hew wooden cup that would have been entirely unremarkable, had it not been full to the brim with dancing, blue white flames.

“This is the Goblet of Fire, it is currently sat in the ballroom of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, ready to spit out three random names, one from each school. Those who wanted to put forward their names had twenty-four hours to do so and in exactly,” he checked his watch, “twelve minutes the flames will turn red, signalling that it is ready. The Goblet of Fire also had an age-line drawn around it, by the Headmistress of Beauxbatons, Madam Mafalda, that meant no-one under the age of seventeen could put their name in.”

There were grumbles around the hall as people told their neighbour that they could have got around that with a little ageing potion, but everyone was shushed when Dumbledore gave a cry of “Activate Beauxbatons!”

Instantaneously, the mirror showed a large ballroom decorated in golds, creams and browns with huge crystal chandeliers running down the centre of the ceiling and arched windows that showed how dark it was outside – Harry reminded himself that France was only an hour ahead of them.

Littered throughout the ballroom were lots of round tables, each of which seated six people. Most students were wearing blue – a mixture of sky and cadet, he presumed one for girls and the other for boys but the picture wasn’t clear enough to tell which was which – except for a five round tables near the front and a long table at the very front that clearly held teachers.

Three of the five tables held students who, he could tell even from the little detail he had, had very broad shoulders and were wearing blood red robes – he guessed that they Durmstrang students – and the remaining two tables were full of black robes – the Hogwarts students.

Just as he was contemplating that Professor McGonagall must have been sat at the Head table as she was nowhere to be seen when a lady who looked to be only about four feet tall stepped forwards.

Hermione had told him a little about the Headmaster Karkaroff – he had been a Death Eater in the first war but had escaped prison by giving up names of other Death Eaters – and Madam Mafalda who was a world-renowned duellist.

Despite how few details could be seen through the mirror, Harry could tell that this was Madam Mafalda. She held herself with confidence and power despite her size and he could easily imagine her running a school that produced powerful witches and wizards.

When she stood up and moved next to the Goblet of Fire, all of the Beauxbatons students stood and remained standing until Madam Mafalda waved a hand to seat them.

“Welcome students, both those who are here in the ballroom and those who are watching from afar.” Her voice sounded a little electronic, but Harry was sure that was because of the mirror, not because that’s what she actually sounded like.

“In just a few seconds, the Goblet of Fire will be ready to choose the three Champions, if you are picked, please go through that door and await instruction.” She motioned to a small gold door that was off the ballroom to the right of the staff table.

Even as she finished speaking, the blue flames of the Goblet turned red and gold sparks flew everywhere. A tongue of flame shot into the air, spitting out a fragment of charred parchment as it went.

Gasps went up around the hall as Madam Mafalda shot into the air and hovered there before plucking the parchment and landing gracefully back in the floor. Without giving anyone chance to wonder how on earth she managed to defy gravity, she straightened out the parchment.

“The Champion for Durmstrang Institute, is Victor Krum!”

Deep shouts came from the Durmstrang tables and polite applause came from everyone else as Krum gave a small bow then made his way out of the small door. At Hogwarts, there was loud applause and shouts of recognition at the seeker who caught the snitch in the final of the World Cup.

“I didn’t even know that he still went to school!” Ron hissed under the shouts, “He’s probably amazing at magic.”

“Someone has a crush…” Muttered Ginny while Harry snickered.

The Goblet of Fire turned red again and Madam Mafalda went through the same process.

“The Champion for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is Cassius Warrington!”

There was explosion of cheers from the Slytherin table and from a small number of other people around the room including Harry, his friends and a few others who either knew that Slytherin’s weren’t as bad as they were made out to be or who new Cassius personally.

Most people, however, broke out into shouts of outrage and disgust.

“We can’t have a Slytherin Champion!”

“Not _him_!”

“He’s a disgrace to Hogwarts!”

“Can’t we have a _real_ Champion?!”

The longer the shouts went on, the more agitated Harry got. Suddenly, he saw red and stood up on his bench with a loud yell, stopping all he shouts in their tracks as his wave of magic hit them.

“ _Oi_! We’re one school, not four! Cassius Warrington is a student of Hogwarts and so perfectly eligible to be out Champion. He is as good as any other Champion and will do his best to make us proud, so we should be proud of him in turn. It’s you who are disgracing Hogwarts, not him. Durmstrang got behind their Champion and what are you doing to ours? Yelling at him! Do you really want to show that side of us to the other biggest schools in this part of the world? Just stop! We need to be united, why can’t you understand that?!”

Suddenly, he realised what he was doing and stopped short before sliding back into his seat and clutching his stomach as a wave of nausea flooded through him. He knew that everyone was staring at him and he didn’t know what to do.

A little further up the table, there was a flash of red and twin shouts of “Warrington!” and before he knew it, the cry was being taken up by more and more people around the hall.

Cheeks still burning, Harry dared to look up and around. There were people stood up on benches all over the hall, chanting and clapping and when he looked at the staff table, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Remus and Sirius were all smiling out at everyone while Severus was looking at him with pride, gratitude and respect.

Thankfully, the noise quietened just in time for them to hear the announcement of the third Champion.

“Finally, the Champion for Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, is Fleur Delacour!”

A slim young lady with silver hair rose gracefully from her seat near the back of the ballroom and threaded her way through the tables. She curtsied to her Headmistress then made her way through the door into the side room.

“Must be the daughter that Lord Delacour mentioned at the World Cup, the one who can cast a Patronus.” Harry whispered to Hermione, who nodded while she clapped.

The applause for Fleur was more refined, but the students of Beauxbatons were clearly pleased with their Champion, even if a few were – more than - disappointed that they had not been chosen themselves.

“There we are. Congratulations to our three Champions, Fleur Delacour, Victor Krum and Cassius Warrington, and I hope that the Hogwarts and Durmstrang students who didn’t get chosen can still get something out of this experience…”

Whatever Madam Mafalda was about to say got cut off as the Goblet of Fire turned red and spat out a fourth piece of parchment. Purely on instinct, she leapt into the air and caught it, before reading what was written.

“Harry Potter!”

There was silence and Harry felt his stomach drop jerkily.

“Harry Potter!” came the shout again, and this time it was followed by a wave of noise throughout both the hall at Hogwarts and the ballroom at Beauxbatons.

Through the mirror, they could see Professor McGonagall step forward, presumably to explain that Harry was, in fact, not there but back in England. Madam Mafalda made to dismiss the students and then the mirror cut off as Professor Dumbledore stood to call their attention.

“Please, I must go and get to the bottom of this. All students will go back to their common rooms, you will know what is happening by the morning.”

No-one moved - not even Harry who was busy staring at the table in shock – until Dumbledore gave calm command of “Now.”

It wasn’t loud, but it was very clear that he expected to be obeyed, there were scraps of stools and whispers all around, but Harry didn’t hear any of it, he was too busy trying to breathe.

Several people hovered back, including the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Neville, Ginny, Hermione and Ron. Draco and Daphne as well as Hannah and Susan also hurried over rather than going back to their common rooms.

Harry vaguely felt one hand in his and another on his shoulder and he thought that he heard someone (it might have been Sirius?) telling everyone except two to go back to their common rooms.

“Shoot Remus, he’s dissociating.”

“Harry? Harry, come on, Harry.”

The voice was like a knock on his brain and he lifted his head, his movements sluggish as he saw a blurry person in front of him.

“That’s it, Harry. Do you know who this is?”

“Remus?” he croaked as his sight became more focused.

“Yep, it’s Remus. Who’s holding your hand?”

With a start, Harry felt someone squeeze his hand. He looked down at it then followed it up until he saw long ginger hair.

“Ginny?” He gasped.

There was another squeeze to his hand, “Yeah Harry, it’s me.” Then she began to hum a quiet tune that Harry was sure he recognised from somewhere.

Suddenly, it came to him and he began to sing in time to the humming, “There will come a soldier, who carries a mighty sword…”

The further through the song they got, the more the world came back into focus. He was hunched over Gryffindor table which Remus and Sirius were sat on while Ginny sat on his right, her hand in his, and Hermione sat on his left with her hand resting on his shoulder.

There was no-one else in the room and there was little noise apart from Ginny’s quiet singing.

“What’s going on?” he whispered.

“Dumbledore has gone to France to find out what’s happening, and Snape is letting off some steam because he’s worried about you, Pup.” Sirius told me.

A wave of nausea flooded through him and he nodded silently, “Can someone get him?”

“I’ll go.” Remus promised, then shuffled off the table and marched into a side chamber out of sight.

“What do you think is going to happen?” Harry asked, barely audible.

“I don’t know Pup. If you’re name really did come out of the cup then you might to compete, there’s a magical binding contract on it that will strip you of your magic if you don’t.”

“But I didn’t even put my name in.” Harry panicked, but Ginny rubbed his back soothingly while Hermione spoke.

“Harry, Harry, we know you didn’t - you weren’t even in the same country as the cup. We’ll sort this out.”

Harry nodded, wanting to believe her. There was the noise of footsteps behind them and Harry turned to see Severus striding towards him.

“Dad!” he cried as he got up and flung himself at the black-robed professor.

“Harry.” Severus sighed – his son was in his arms and safe for now.

In the background, Harry heard Remus telling Sirius that he had to repair nearly all the antechamber because Severus had completely destroyed it through anxiety and anger. In a weird way, it made Harry feel a bit better that his Dad was so worried about him.

After a while, they broke apart when they heard Remus say, “Professor Dumbledore.”

They turned to face the Headmaster and Harry noticed that he looked older in that moment than he had ever looked as he moved towards them.

“I’m sorry Harry, but you are going to have to compete or you will lose your magic.”

For the second time that evening, Harry saw red; his magic bubbled up inside at him and he could feel it whirling around him. Did they not care that he didn’t put his name in? Did they not care that he didn’t want to compete or that he was underage?

Suddenly, something hit him, and his anger left as the despair hit once more.

“B-but, I’m not of age, I thought that you had to be of age to compete. Aren’t they the rules? Won’t I lose my magic if I compete and am not of age?” he began to panic now.

Dumbledore shook his head, “This is the first time we’ve put an age limit on it, it won’t affect you.”

“B-but there’s still an age limit. The age limit is a rule, if I break any of them then I lose my magic.” He breath was coming in short gasps as Dumbledore moved closer.

“Listen to me, Harry.” The Headmaster placed his hand on his shoulder, “The only thing stopping not of age students from putting their names in was the age line. The Goblet of Fire, which is what will take away your magic if you don’t compete, does not have an age limit on it. Any age can put their name in the Goblet if they can get past the age line, do you understand?”

“I’m not going to lose my magic.” Harry took a deep breath.

“As long as you compete, yes.”

“I have to compete.”

“Unfortunately, yes. But you are a powerful young wizard and I believe that you can do well. You aren’t allowed help from the Professors of you school, but we can help your friends to find books that will help you.”

Harry nodded, still trying to process it.

“You’re leaving for France at four o’clock tomorrow evening, you exempt from lessons tomorrow.”

“Am I going to spend the year in France?”

Dumbledore nodded, “The rules state that the Champion must remain at the hosting school for most of the year.”

Harry groaned, “The quidditch team are going to hate me.”

“No, we aren’t Harry. We can work this out, just give yourself a little time to process everything, then we can talk about that.” Ginny told him.

With a small sigh, Harry nodded, “You’ll have to tell me how everything goes. Sirius, can you charm two more mirrors? For Remus and Severus.”

Sirius nodded, but Severus butted in, “Why will I need one?”

“Because we’re going to be in different countries…”

“I’m going with you.” He said as if he hadn’t considered anything different.

“Snape, you can’t go anywhere, we need you to teach here.” Sirius pointed out.

“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, Black! You can hire someone for the year.”

“Come now Severus.” Dumbledore laid his hand on his arm, “What are you going to do in France? They have a potions professor and we need ours. We can’t do any more for Harry by being there all year around.” Then he added as an afterthought, “And he’ll have Minerva.”

Severus paused but didn’t look decided until Harry piped up, “You’ll come for each task, won’t you? And my friends?”

“Of course, Harry.” Severus replied while everyone else nodded.

“Then that’s enough. We can mirror call everyday if you want, so you know I’m okay.”

With a sigh, Severus agreed, and, with that problem out of the way, Harry turned back to Dumbledore, “What am I doing about my studies?”

Now it was Dumbledore’s turn to sigh, “Ideally, we would have you join the fourth year lessons, as your age don’t tend to be the best at self-study, but you don’t know French and I think that you’re better at self-study then most. Professor McGonagall and I have agreed that you will do part-time self-study and part-time tutor under her. You are also exempt from end of year exams.”

“Professor McGonagall has agreed to be my tutor?” Harry asked and Dumbledore nodded, “But doesn’t that mean she is helping me with the tasks?”

“No, she is allowed to teach you the curriculum, just not anything specific for the tasks.”

Harry nodded and sighed, “I guess I’m going to France.”

Dumbledore clapped him on the shoulder and said, “Congratulations on being the second Hogwarts Champion, even if it isn’t what you – or any of us - want, I know you’ll do us proud.”

Harry didn’t hear anything after ‘second Hogwarts Champion’, it had just hit him about how Slytherin would react, they were going to think that he was trying to take all the glory away from the real Hogwarts Champion!

Shaking his head to clear it, he turned to Severus, “Will you come with me to the Slytherin common room?”

“Why, what’s the matter?”

“I need to know if they believe me.”

“About what?”

“That I didn’t put my name in.”

“Harry, they know you didn’t you were in a different country.”

“But still.” He insisted.

Seeing how much this was going to eat at his son, Severus agreed, “Alright then, come on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I'm not sure that I've written a chapter that's just one scene like this since my very short chapter way back at the beginning.  
> I struggled to make bits of this sound normal, so sorry if it's a bit wooden.  
> And, disclaimer that I've never experienced dissociation so I'm sorry if I didn't do that very well.  
> Also, the next chapter is probably going to be quite a lot of description because we're meeting new people and going to a new place, so get ready for that!


	9. Crying with the wolves [P3]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry spends a final day at Hogwarts then goes to Beauxbatons for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so I got my GCSE results today (a 9 in English Language?!) and in commemoration of the missed exams, I have made this chapter into a bit of a Language paper 1, questions 5. For those of you who don’t know, that’s a piece of creative writing.  
> To be honest, I didn’t do it intentionally, but that’s how it turned out, so enjoy!  
> 

Harry stopped for a moment outside the door to the Slytherin common room and took a deep breath. He had absolutely no way of knowing they the Snakes would react to him being in the Triwizard Tournament.

Severus gave him a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder then spoke the password to the wall (because where better to hide a doorway than in a random blank wall?) and stepped through, leaving Harry to trail just behind him.

Together, they entered the gloomy common room that seemed to be filled with most of the Snakes already. There was immediate silence as Severus asked a nearby seventh year prefect if everyone was there.

As they waited for the prefect to come back from checking the dormitories, a heavy silence filled the room and Harry felt everyone’s eyes on him. He looked up and saw that even Draco, who normally showed as little emotion as possible, looked somewhat worried and apprehensive.

After what felt like an eternity, the prefect came back with a few students and declared that everyone was there, so Severus stepped forward to call their attention, even though everyone was already focused on him.

“Firstly, I wanted to say that I’m proud of how you supported our Champion this evening. I don’t suspect that we’ll have much trouble with the rest of the school now, but if anything happens, please tell me immediately.”

Harry pretended not to notice the reference to his outburst after the feast and instead waited for Severus to continue.

“Besides that, I came to inform you of the actual events of the Choosing of the Champions this evening. As you all saw, after the three names were taken out, the Goblet flared again, and Mr Potter’s name came out. This has been determined as genuine – not that Mr Potter put his name in, but that his name came out and he has to compete – it is yet unknown who exactly put his name in and why, but we are trying our best to find out.”

Severus looked around and saw that most of the Snakes had understanding looks on their faces.

“Mr Potter will be spending the year at Beauxbatons in France as the fourth competitor – he has to, or he will lose his magic. I wanted to tell you this personally, as I know that Harry has friends in this house, he also wanted to talk to you himself.”

He gestured to Harry, who stepped forward with a deep breath.

“I just wanted to say, that I didn’t want this and I’m in no way trying to take Cassius Warrington’s place as the true Champion of Hogwarts. You should be proud that our Champion is from Slytherin, I know better than most that your house is full of strong and talented people. Of course, I’m not just going to sit back and let myself get killed, but whatever I do, I am not trying to take the spotlight away from Warrington, the real Hogwarts Champion.”

Looking around anxiously to try and gauge a reaction, Harry raked his hand through his hair; most expressions were unreadable with a few sympathetic and a few angry of the ones that he could understand.

Eventually, Draco stepped forwards, “Harry, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we believe you are not trying to take anything from Warrington; your speech to the school after his name was called told us that, you didn’t know you were going to be forced to compete them, but you spoke up in front of everyone and put them in their place.”

Harry flushed as he remembered his impromptu speech and saw the nods that were coming from all around the eerie common room.

“We know you didn’t want this Harry,” Draco continued at the support of his house, “But you have stood up for our house more than anyone else who isn’t in it and we’re grateful for that. We see you as our Champion as much as Warrington and we support you equally.”

A few agreeing shouts went up around the room and Harry saw the grins on his friends’ faces – it felt good to know that he had the support.

“Thank you, Draco, everyone. The support is much appreciated. Now, I apologise but I need to go – I leave for France in…” he checked the time, ten o’clock, “Eighteen hours.”

With a small smile and a wave, Harry made his way out of the door, followed by Severus.

After a quick hug from his Dad, Harry entered the Gryffindor common room alone to find that it wasn’t nearly as full as he had been expecting. Only Hermione, Ron, Neville and Ginny, who got up and gave him a hug as soon as he appeared, were there, sat around the fire.

“How are you holding up?” Ginny asked him quietly when she let him go.

Harry ran a hand tiredly across his face, “It hasn’t really hit me yet if I’m honest with you. I just want to mediate for a while then go to sleep.”

“You can do that, Harry you can go up now if you want.”

“In a moment.” He moved towards the fireplace where everyone was sitting, “Where is everyone?”

“Remus came and told them what was going on then sent them to bed so that you weren’t crowded when you came in. How did it go with the Snakes?” Hermione answered then asked.

Harry smiled at how well Remus knew him then told her, “Good actually. I told them that I wasn’t the true Hogwarts Champion, but they weren’t having any of it, said that we were equal and thanked me for standing up for Warrington in the Great Hall.”

Dropping into a nearby armchair, he ran his hand across his face again, “Hermione, do you think you can get Angelina please?”

She nodded and disappeared, leaving Ron to ask, “Hermione and Ginny said that you have the day off tomorrow?”

“Yeah, maybe I’ll ask Dumbledore if you guys can have the afternoon off so we can spend one last afternoon together.”

“Sounds good.” Ron replied, then he grinned, “It’s always you.”

“Seems like it. You’re not jealous, are you? I know you were the one who wanted to enter.”

“Maybe a little.” Ron shrugged, “But at the end of the day, the chances of me dying in this competition would be very high and there’s no point to winning the money if I’m not around to enjoy it.”

Before Harry could answer, Hermione’s voice came from the stairway, holding a hint of warning, “You’re right Ronald, it’s not.”

Ron didn’t answer beyond an eyeroll, but Harry laughed at Hermione’s mothering nature.

“Hey Angelina.” Harry greeted the older girl, “Sorry to get you out of bed.”

“Don’t worry about it, kid,” she ruffled his hair, “What can I do for you?”

“I’m going to France for the year, I can’t very well be Captain of the Quidditch team while I’m in a different country.”

“No, I don’t suppose you can.”

“You are my choice for a replacement. I know you didn’t really want it, but it would just been this year.”

Angelina considered him for a moment, “The main reason I didn’t want Captain was because I wanted to be able to concentrate on my NEWTs, they aren’t till next year but I didn’t want to be Captain for one year then have to train someone else. But it’s different if you’re the real Captain and I’m just filling in while you’re away. I’d be happy to help.”

Harry smiled his thanks and made to pass his badge across to her, but she pushed it back.

“You should keep the badge. I’ll get a different one, maybe we can add another letter onto it. TC, Temporary Captain, maybe?”

“If you’re sure.” Harry shrugged, “I don’t mind not wearing the badge.”

“You’re the real Captain.” Angelina insisted.

“If you say so,” He shrugged again but at the older girl’s look he sighed, “I’ll talk to Dumbledore tomorrow.”

“I do say so. Now, do you have any ideas for who you want to fill your place on the team?”

Harry groaned, “There’s only three days until the game. I’d stay if I could, but there’s some Triwizard thing on Saturday.”

“The Weighing of the Wands.” Hermione supplied helpfully and Harry nodded.

“I think Ginny should cover seeker, she’s nearly as good as me. Keep Katie as keeper because we can survive with just two chasers if we have a good keeper. Then try and find a third chaser, do you think it’s worth trying to train one for this game or find one for next and just make do with two chasers for this game.”

Angelina considered the options, “The problem with two chasers is that if one is injured or boxed in, the quaffle has nowhere to go. There’s someone I’ve seen on a broom a few times, seems like she’d be a pretty good chaser, third year, Demelza Robins, I’ll gather the rest of the team and try her tomorrow. If she works then we’ll go with her, if she doesn’t then we’ll go just me and Alicia. Sound good?”

“I knew you’d have a solution. Let me know how it goes.”

“Of course. Now, I’ll let you get to bed, you look like you need it.” With one last hair ruffled, she turned on heel and strode back up the stairs with a quick smile to everyone else.

Harry sunk further into his armchair and pulled Ginny close with a sigh. This was going to a be a weird, chaotic and stressful year.

* * *

At noon the next day, Harry made his way to the Room of Requirement, ticking things off on his fingers as he walked. He’d packed, Angelina had a new Captain badge – that, at her request, said TC – Sirius had charmed mirrors for both Remus and Severus and he had even managed (not that it took a lot of convincing) to persuade Dumbledore to let his friends have the afternoon off.

But that was after lunch, right then, he was on his way to ask the Room of Requirement for something very specific.

He found Ginny waiting for him by the tapestry, she smiled when she saw him.

“I wasn’t sure how you wanted the room, so I thought I’d wait out here.”

After giving her a kiss, Harry wandered backwards and forwards in front of where the door would appear three times, concentrating hard. As soon as it materialised, he took Ginny’s hand and led her through.

The Room had been modelled just as he had imagined it, a spacious kitchen that had a fancy modern flare to it and a pleasant place for the two of them to sit and eat.

“We won’t be able to have a date for a while, so I thought I’d cook you lunch.” He raised his eyebrow in a smirk, “You’ve never had a meal prepared by me before.”

Ginny grinned at him, “Sounds perfect love, thank you. What are you making?”

“Well, I talked to the twins this morning and you apparently like pizza and pasta. We don’t have time for pizza, but I’ve made many different types of pasta before, so I’m going with that. The toppings are a surprise.”

“Sounds amazing – I do love pasta.” She pressed a kiss into his cheek then slid into a nearby bar chair.

“Ah, let’s get started then!”

An hour later the pair sat back and sighed contentedly.

“That’s it, you can be my personal chef from now on.”

Harry laughed, “I’d be okay with that. Rather you than my aunt and uncle.”

Ginny considered him for a moment, “I know you’re never going to forget the first twelve years of your life, but I hope you can move on from it, and be happy.”

Leaning forwards, Harry placed his hand inside his girlfriend’s, “Gin, am so happy in this moment because I’m here, I have a Dad, a sister, an amazing girlfriend and lots of other friends and family. I might be going away for eight months, but I’ll still have you guys. Plus, I have moved on from the Dursley’s, I moved on for good the day that Severus adopted me – the day I got a real family. You’re right, I’m never going to forget it, and, in some ways, I don’t want to, because it made me who I am today. I definitely wouldn’t be this good at cooking if I hadn’t been doing it since age four.”

Standing up, Ginny moved around the table and lowered herself into her boyfriend’s lap, “You’re right, we’ll always be there for you. And I know that you’ll be there for me too, because you’re the most selfless and kind-hearted person I have ever met.” She paused and let out a laugh, “Plus it means I don’t have to learn to cook.”

“Have you not done any at all? I would have thought that your mum would be the type who teaches everyone how to cook.”

“She hasn’t let me anywhere near the kitchen yet, but I think she’ll probably start this summer.” Ginny sighed, “The thing about my mum, is that she has a quite old-fashioned approach to relationships, she thinks that the women should do the cooking and housework and just live to have children. But I don’t want that, I want to be self-sufficient and my own person even if I’m also in a relationship.”

Harry held back his head and looked straight into Ginny’s eyes, “I wouldn’t want anything else for you, Gin. I’m not deluded enough to think that I can stop you from following your dreams.”

“Thanks love. She also thinks that men should have respectable ministry jobs and all that, but can you see any of my brothers other than Percy having ministry jobs? She doesn’t tend to think about what we want very much which is why Charlie and Bill don’t come home often and I feel like the two of us will have a lot of arguments about it in the future.”

Harry held his head against Ginny’s and rubbed her back soothingly, trying to calm her, “Hey Gin, I get that it’s not easy to grow up in lots of fighting - I can’t say that I know much about disagreeing with your parents about your future as me and Sev don’t talk about that kind of thing much, but I know you’re strong enough to stand your ground. You’re strong.” He repeated.

They sat there for a few minutes in comfortable silence until Ginny stood up and stretched.

“We should go, there’s no point in the seven of us not being in lessons if you aren’t even there.”

Harry nodded and they wandered out of the Room of Requirement, hand in hand.

“Have you got any plans for this afternoon?” Ginny asked conversationally.

“Nah, not really. Just chilling with my friends.”

“Well, lets get this afternoon of chilling started.”

* * *

With a final wave to his friends and family, Harry gripped onto the old bottle that was his portkey and held his breath as he felt the hook behind his navel.

After a good few seconds – he guessed it took longer because he was traveling a much greater distance then he ever had before – the world came back into focus and he dropped lightly onto his feet, something that had taken him a lot of practise.

Looking up, he saw that six people were in front of him, each of the Heads and their Champions. By Draco’s instruction, he made his way over the hosting Headmistress first.

Madam Mafalda was much younger than he had first thought, she looked to be only about thirty and had long jet black hair that fell down to her feet and was pulled into a neat plait at the back of her hair.

One of her eyes, Harry noticed as he got closer, seemed to be two colours, hazel around the pupil with blue around that – he couldn’t remember ever having seen anything like that before, but he did notice that the eyes seemed to move speedily over him.

He could tell that he was being judged, and it made him cringe slightly inside, but he decided that he had passed for now, as a slight sparkle appeared in the quick eyes.

The Beauxbatons Headmistress was wearing a medieval style gown – which he noticed was common amongst witches – in midnight blue that was relatively simple and obviously practical, but stylish.

None of this Harry found particularly unusual, interesting, of course, but not unusual. What was unusual however, was the tiny (compared to normal sized) dragon that was fast asleep on her shoulder.

It was a bright gold colour, with a long twisting body that looked to be about thirty centimetres long, wings that looked like they shouldn’t be able to lift its body, and long eyelashes.

Tearing his eyes away from the Dragon, Harry took the Headmistress’s hand in his own and kissed it with a bow.

“Madam Mafalda, I thank you for allowing me to stay with you this year.”

“Mister Potter, I’m sure this will be an interesting experience for you.” She had an accent that was heavier, but no harder to understand, than Lord Delacour’s and a smooth voice, “Having a Triwizard Tournament with four contestants has never been done before and I doubt it will ever happen again, we shall just have to work even harder to win.”

Harry raised an any eyebrow, “I can say that I would be perfectly content if a Triwizard Tournament with four contestants didn’t happen even once, at least not with that fourth contestant being me.”

The lady’s eyes danced even more, “Quite. Shall I introduce everyone?”

“Thank you, I would quite like to know who this beautiful specimen is.” He gestured to the tiny dragon, who had suddenly awakened with a delicate sneeze that sent a few gold sparks from its nose.

At his words, the scales of the dragon blushed from gold to rose to scarlet like an instant sunset.

“This,” Madam Mafalda introduced, “Is my familiar, Iridiana. As you can tell from her colour change when you called her beautiful, she is a Mood Dragon.”

“Woah. I think that I need to read up on dragons, I can’t say that I knew Mood Dragons were real.”

He couldn’t help crooning at Iridiana, and her colouring got even brighter than her thought possible. Looking up, he saw that Madam Mafalda was giving him an odd look, but he brushed it aside when she started talking again.

“They are real, just extremely uncommon – they can only be found on the highest peak in France, Mont Blanc. It is tradition that the Headmaster or Headmistress of Beauxbatons must have a Mood Dragon familiar, if they do not, then they are not considered worthy. After all, Mood Dragons won’t bond with just anyone.”

“I hope that I learn more fascinating facts about Beauxbatons during my time here.”

“I’m sure you will, Mr Potter. Now, allow me to introduce one of my best students and the Beauxbatons Champion, Fleur Delacour.”

Fleur was quite tall, with long silver-blonde hair that ran in a silky sheet down her back and a slim face that had a striking beauty to it (Harry guessed that she was probably part Veela) and didn’t look unlike the face of her father. She was wearing a long skirt and fitted blazer in sky blue with cadet blue trim and a matching hat that sloped to a point to one side of her head and a cloak that looked light and only covered her shoulders.

She looked unhappy and a little scornful, not that Harry had expected any of the Champions to be very happy that they suddenly had to compete against a fourth person, but she clearly thought of him as someone who wouldn’t last five minutes in this competition. Shaking that aside, he stepped forward to greet her.

“Lady Fleur.” He kissed her hand, taking note of the surprised look on her face.

“How did you know how to address me?” she asked with an accent that was decidedly harder to understand than Madam Mafalda’s was.

“I had the pleasure of meeting your father at the final of the Quidditch World Cup this summer, my Godfather and Regent introduced us.”

“Your Godfather?” Fleur asked suspiciously.

“Yes, Lord Sirius Black.”

“Oh, my father spoke well of Lord Black.” He noticed that she looked slightly less scornful at that, “But if he is your Regent, then that makes you Heir Potter.”

“It does, yes.”

“Then my apologise Heir Potter, for addressing you incorrectly.”

He waved her apology aside, “That’s quite alright, you had no way of knowing.”

Moving down the line, Harry bowed to the Headmaster of Durmstrang Institute and famous Quidditch star.

Victor Krum wore deep red robes and a murky brown fur cloak, while Karkaroff wore a long creamy coat that disguised what he was wearing underneath.

“Professor Karkaroff, Mr Krum. Congratulations for being chosen, I was looking forward to watching you from the side lines.”

Karkaroff just nodded sharply, but Krum stepped forward and spoke with a thick accent, “Thank Mr Potter. I would say the same to you, except the word is that you did not want to enter the Tournament.”

“That is true, I was glad that Hogwarts was no hosting so I could watch from a relaxing distance, but someone wanted differently.”

Krum nodded, “I heard someone say, you play quidditch, is this true?”

“It is, I’m a seeker. I was supposed to be Captain of my team this year, but I had to give it to my friend because I can’t be Captain from France.”

The Bulgarian looked at him in surprise, “You the Captain? But I thought you were only fourth year.”

“I am, yes.”

“Are you oldest on team?”

Harry shook his head, “I’m the second youngest actually.”

Krum’s expression of surprise changed to one of amazement, “This is very impressive. Maybe you would like to join me in flying some time, they have quidditch pitch here.”

Harry’s eyes lit up; Krum was world renowned!

“Thank you, I would like that. I was actually at the final of the Quidditch World Cup and I would love to learn a few of those moves.”

“I’m sure that can be arranged.”

With a final nod to both Krum and his Headmaster, Harry greeted the final two people in the line.

“Professor McGonagall, thank you for helping me to sort all this out and agreeing to tutor me.”

“It’s the least I can do, Mr Potter. I know full well that you didn’t want this.”

Nodding, he turned to Cassius, “Warrington, I’m sorry about this, I’m really not trying to take your place or upstage you or anything.”

The older boy nodded, an unreadable expression on his face, “I know. I heard about what you said, both after I got chosen and in our common room. Thank you.”

Madam Mafalda stepped forward again, “I’m sure that you want to find out where you’re staying, so I’ll let you go. Dinner is in half an hour.”

With an acknowledging bow, Harry fell into step behind Professor McGonagall and besides Warrington. For the first time, he looked around at where they were.

He had arrived into a circle of white gravel that was bordered all around by lush green hedges, just low enough for him to see over. A straight path led up from where they were, about two meters in width, and allowed a view of Beauxbatons, which looked more like a palace than a school to Harry.

It was white, with many arched windows and lots of architectural details along the levels and roofing that gave the building a more expensive feel.

In the centre of the palace was a domed roof, which Harry guessed probably held the ballroom, and on the two front corners, the rooms were circular, not unlike the towers of Hogwarts expect touching the ground.

Most of the roof was a dusty grey, but the dome and cone roofs where a deep blue.

This building didn’t look to be as old as Hogwarts by quite a way, but it had clearly been around for a while despite how immaculate it was.

Hedges that swirled around them in delicate patterns were neatly clipped, not a speck of gravel was off the path, marble sculptures shone and the water in the circular pool positioned in between them and the school glittered in the sun as it spurted out of the fountain in an arch of rainbow light.

The group moved up long white steps to tall glass doors behind which the Entrance Hall was located. The Entrance Hall was fairly long, with a curved roof that had crystal chandeliers at intervals and marble walls that were a backdrop for gold statues who were clearly the old Headmasters and Mistresses of the school.

The statues waved them down the hall with smiles and shouted greetings, introducing themselves at such a speed that Harry didn’t pick up a single name.

All he knew was that he definitely wanted to come back and talk to them – he liked the idea of the past Head’s being available to everyone rather than just the current Head.

At the opposite end of the entrance hall was a set of double doors, not unlike the doors into the Great Hall but with a rich gold leaf design painted onto the wood. These doors were propped open, allowing Harry to see into the Ballroom of Beauxbatons.

Harry could tell that this was the room that was under the domed roof he had seen from outside.

As he had seen through the mirror the night before, the Ballroom was full of round tables that each seated six people, with two long tables, one running down the centre of the room that was clearly to hold the food and one at the furthest end that was the Head Table.

Every table was carved in delicate leaf patterns around and there were cream and gold silk tablecloths on each.

On the domed ceiling was a painting depicting beautiful pegasi, noble centaurs, mighty naiads and dainty dryads all engaging in a beautiful dance around a fairy-tale forest.

“This is where you will be eating.” Professor McGonagall explained, “It’s probably the only place you will visit regularly within the school.”

Harry nodded; he wouldn’t mind eating somewhere that beautiful every day.

There were matching doors – that looked rather small and simple compared to the grand Ballroom doors – leading off opposite each other at the end of the Entrance Hall and Professor McGonagall led them through the one on the right.

After a few more turns, each of which revealed golds, browns and creams as well as exquisite carved details and statues, they came out of the other side of the school.

The back of the school was a huge grassy area that looked like it would take about a day to walk across. The grass was short but lush and the silver birches that rimmed the edge of the space waved gently in the breeze.

Harry could see a quidditch pitch off to one side and what looked like stables off to another as well as the carriage that the Hogwarts students came in parked nearby.

Most fascinating of all, was on odd looking boat that the Durmstrang students were headed for. It had two circular propellers at the back and a thick band of what looked like rubber around edge, protecting it from everything.

It was clearly bigger on the inside as the Hogwarts carriage was - because there was no way more than three people would fit in it otherwise - but the weirdest thing was that it was parked on land, despite looking like it was better suited to being in water.

Pushing aside the puzzling contraption, Harry stepped through the door of the carriage and was greeted by the sight of a room that looked a lot like the Gryffindor common room, or any of the common rooms he supposed, with sofas, armchairs and tables, but in more neutral creams and browns.

There were a few people sitting in the room who stared (or glowered) at Harry, but he just offered them a friendly wave and moved on.

Off this room were three simple doors, one of which Professor McGonagall gestured to.

“That door goes through to my office and quarters, we will be having most of our lessons in my office. That one leads to the girl’s quarters and this one.” She motioned to the final door, “Is the boy’s quarters; Mr Diggory is in there and I’m sure he will be happy to show you around.”

Harry nodded and walked through the door to be greeted by the sight of a long room which was again, very neutral in colouring, with eight four poster beds, four running down each wall. Every bed had heavy drapes of a light blue and a bedside table as well as a place for a trunk to be stored.

Some of the beds had people in them, and the bed closest to the door on the right held someone who he recognised from the quidditch pitch and summer camp.

“Hey Cedric.” He greeted the older boy who bounced of the bed to greet him and stare at a few of the other boys who were giving Harry hard looks.

“Hey Harry. Just ignore them, they’re jealous. Welcome to France.”

“Thanks, Ced.” He smiled and raised his eyebrows jokingly, “Are you jealous?”

“Nah, not me.” Cedric shrugged, “It would have been cool to be a Champion, but I don’t mind overly – I’m excited to be studying in France.”

“From what I’ve seen so far, it does look pretty cool here.”

“It is. Now, this bed is yours.” He motioned to the one opposite his then flicked his wand to move Harry’s trunk into the space, “And that bathroom is just through there.” He pointed to another door.

“You go and freshen up and I’ll meet you in five to go to dinner.” He looked at Harry, eyes glittering with mischief, “I bet you’ve never had French food before – I’m going to enjoy watching you try.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the Durmstrang students came in a hovercraft. There wasn’t anywhere for them to park their ship, so I had to get creative. Not everyone has to share England’s hatred of Muggle stuff!  
> Also yes, I stole the Mood Dragon from How to Train Your Dragon #toothlessandstormflyarehuntingdragonsnotridingdragons  
> It’s not that I dislike the HTTYD films, I love them, but I love the books too, despite how different they are. Stormfly is a Mood Dragons guys! And if you've bothered to read the books then I love you :)  
> Anyway, I hope you like how I’ve designed Beauxbatons, it was founded in 1552 so I looked for French chateaux and palaces around that time and went from there. Yes the ballroom and entrance hall are very Palace of Versailles and that was built about 100 years later, but who says the Palace wasn’t based of Beauxbatons, not the other way around..? :)
> 
> Either way, the next chapter is the Weighing of the Wands!


	10. Crying with the wolves [P4]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Weighing of the Wands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I’m back! There’s been a break of a whole 24 hours!  
> Anyway, enough of my sarcasm, and to a note about accents. 
> 
> Imagine them, I don’t want to mess up writing them.
> 
> I’ll tell you what their voices sound like, but if they are at Beauxbatons, they probably have a french accent! Then same with Durmstrang students having Scandinavian accents.  
> Now that’s been clarified – enjoy!

The first day passed in at Beauxbatons blur for Harry; he didn’t have any lessons as Professor McGonagall gave him the day to settle in and explore.

He found some pegasi in the stables and hippogriffs in the forest as well as a dard (which he knew he would have to research more) and several snakes with whom him and Elpis had conversations.

He had spent a bit of time with Cedric and a lot of time stressing about the Tournament; he knew that he would be told about the first task the next day, so he could start training the day after, but he really wasn’t looking forward to the Weighing of the Wands.

The more you wish something wouldn’t happen, the more quickly it seems to arrive, and before Harry was mentally prepared, it was time for the ceremony.

Professor McGonagall led him and Warrington into a room of the Ballroom (the room that the Champions had entered after being chosen) that had gold and white marble everywhere and a few paintings that – strangely for a magical school – weren’t moving.

In the antechamber were quite a few people, the Champions, the Heads of the schools, reporters and photographers from each country, as well as Ollivander and a smartly dressed man who Harry did not recognise.

Seeing everyone – especially the English reporter, Rita Skeeter, who was known for her outrageous stories, often about him – Harry nearly ran back out of the room right then, but Professor McGonagall was behind him offering him a sympathetic look as though she knew exactly how much he didn’t want to do this.

The smartly dressed man stepped forwards to greet them with a smooth voice that had only a small French lilt.

“Mr Warrington.” He gave a short bow then turned to Harry with a neutral expression, “Mr Potter, I do not believe we have met yet, I am Louis Brodeur, the French Minister for Magic. I am the fourth and most unbiased judge of the Triwizard Tournament.”

Harry stooped into a bow, “Minister Brodeur, it is nice to meet you.”

With a nod that was stiff but not unkind, the French Minister stepped back to address everyone in the room.

“Thank you all for joining us today for the Weighing of the Wands. This is to ensure that your wands are in good condition and fully functional, as they are vital in this competition. To perform the checks, please welcome Mr Ollivander, who has a worldwide mastery in Wand Crafting.”

The old man with wild hair stepped towards Fleur Delacour, who was stood the closest to him, and motioned for her to hand her wand to him. When she did, he twirled it around in his fingers, clearly feeling for something.

“Yes, yes.” He said in his quiet, misty voice, “Nine and a half inches, inflexible, rose wood and containing – is that Veela hair?”

“Yes, from the head of my Grandmother.”

Well, that confirmed that Fleur did have Veela blood.

“Yes,” Ollivander repeated, “I don’t use Veela hair much myself, I like to use what I can get in Britain.”

He pointed the wand at a nearby photographer, who looked very startled – understandably so - and muttered and spell; the next second the man’s hair had turned from a light brown to a bright orange that clashed horribly with his purple robes.

Seconds later, his hair was back to normal as Ollivander muttered the counter spell then handed the wand back to Fleur with a nod before moving up the line.

Victor Krum’s wand was apparently dragon heartstring and hornbeam, quite rigid, ten and a quarter and made by the wandmaker Gregorovitch inches but “Rather thicker than one usually sees”, not that Harry really knew what that meant.

After inspecting the wand type, Ollivander turned to another photographer and gave him a pig nose, then turned it back with a satisfied, ignoring the sour look that he received in return.

Next up was Cassius, who had a matt wand of a medium toned, warm wood. Ollivander twirled it as he had done with the others before speaking.

“I remember the day you bought this wand, Mr Warrington, it was Tuesday the fourth of July nineteen eighty-nine. A rather rainy day if I remember correctly.”

Warrington looked at him in disbelief and Harry couldn’t help being shocked, how could someone remember what the weather was on a specific day six years ago?

Ollivander carried on regardless, “Acacia wood – not a very common wood – unicorn hair, twelve inches, slightly springy. Still in good condition.”

He turned it in Rita Skeeter and turned her bright magenta nail varnish to a pale green that matched better with her outfit, receiving a glare in return that only intensified when he didn’t turn it back.

Harry almost laughed at the look on her face, but the laugh was quickly smothered when Ollivander reached for his wand. He was glad he had known what was, and so had taken the time to polish his wand the day before, when Ollivander ran his hand down the polished wood approvingly.

“Ah yes, I remember this well, Mr Potter.”

Quickly, Harry rubbed his hands on his robe to get the sweat of them and tried to refrain from running them through his hair nervously. He could still hear Ollivander’s repetition of ‘curious’ from that day three years ago in his mind.

“Yes, yes, yes. Holly, phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple. An unusual and powerful combination for an unusual and powerful wizard.”

He spent what seemed like an age examining the wand, but he finally turned it on the final photographer and muttered a spell that put streaks of emerald green in her inky black hair.

Quietly, but before he could stop himself, Harry asked, “What spell was that Sir?”

Ollivander gave him a strange look then answered just as quietly, “Quidam Viridis Capillus. If you want a different colour, then you put in whatever colour you want instead of Viridis.”

Harry could have sworn he saw the ancient man wink as he turned back to the French Minister for Magic.

“All perfectly functionally, Minister.”

“Thank you, Mr Ollivander.”

The two gave each other quick bows before Ollivander silently slipped from the room with more speed and agility than Harry thought it was possible for the fragile looking man to have.

Minister Brodeur turned back to the Champions and began to talk.

“Before we can move onto any photographs or interviews, I need to tell you about the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. Ordinarily, you would have heard about this on the night of the Choosing, but that was not possible; even so, hearing this only a few days later will not make much difference.”

Harry could feel almost everyone looking at him, some with interested (weirdly enough, Krum, among others) and others were glaring (Fleur) but he pretended to not notice as he raked his hand through his hair to try and calm himself.

"The first task is designed to test your daring, so we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in a wizard, very important.... The first task will take place on December the third, in front of the other students of Beauxbatons, friends and family of the Champions and a panel of judges consisting of myself, Professor McGonagall, Madam Mafalda and Professor Karkaroff.  
  
"The Champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament on penalty of either or both parties losing their magic. The Champions will face the first challenge armed only with their wands. They will have four weeks to prepare.”

He paused for a moment to check for any questions or objections then gave a nod and stepped back, allowing the reporters and photographers to step forwards.

The next half an hour was spent with the four, seven or eight of them (depending on what the photographers wanted) being arranged in different poses and variations until Harry’s vision was disrupted by lingering dots from the bright flashes which made him very jumpy.

He was constantly being pulled around and pushed to the front, which didn’t help matters at all and his patience and anxiety were both nearing the end of their tether, ready to pull each other over the edge.

Finally, the photographer put away their cameras and Harry thought that he might finally be able to escape, but it was not to be as Rita Skeeter immediately pounced on him.

“Harry, might we have a quick interview?”

It wasn’t much of a question, as she immediately made to grab his arm, but he nimbly dodged and pushed down the angry response that was building in him.

“No, thank you.” He replied cooling, catching the attention of most of the people in the room, despite him trying not to make a scene.

“No?” Rita looked as though she had never heard that word before, “Why ever not?”

“Because Miss Skeeter,” Harry replied through gritted teeth, “I have seen your writing, enough of it has been about me over the years and barely one word in ten is ever true. I do not wish you to write an article of lies about me.”

“B-but,” Rita spluttered for a moment then recovered herself with an exaggerated smile, “But if you gave me the interview then I would be sure to have my facts right.”

Harry considered him for a moment, “No thank you, Miss Skeeter. You have never demonstrated an urge to write the truth and I do not believe that you will start now, no matter what you say.”

“Do you have something to hide?” Rita Skeeter demanded, obviously changing tactics.

“No, but I do like to keep my personal life out of the newspapers, something that you do not seem to understand. If it were up to me then you would not publish anything about me at all - at least, not without my express permission – or ask for interviews unless I offer them.”

“But no-one owns the rights to exclusively publish about you, Harry, so I can ask you for an interview whenever I want.” She gave a predatory smile, “You can say no, of course.”

“Miss Skeeter, if you respected my right to refuse an interview then this conversation wouldn’t still be happening, it would have ended when I said, ‘no thank you’.”

Suddenly an idea popped into his anger filled head that awoke the Slytherin inside him and calmed him down somewhat, “What you say is true, however, no-one owns the rights to exclusively publish about me, maybe I should change that. I know just the person.”

Rita Skeeter looked exited for a moment as though she thought that person was going to be her, and he nearly snorted in amusement as he fished his mirror out of his pocket. The whole room was still staring at the pair with different levels of shock and amusement.

He called “Ayla.” into the mirror (they found it much more secure to use Animagus names) and within seconds the misty eyes and blonde hair of Luna Lovegood appeared.

“Hi, Miss Lovegood.” He greeted her so that she would know this was a formal call, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I was just having a delightful conversation with Miss Skeeter at the Weighing of the Wands when she pointed out that no newspaper company has exclusive rights to publish about me.”

“Very true, Mr Potter.” Luna replied cheerfully, clearly seeing where this was going.

“I was wondering if the Quibbler would like that honour?” Harry asked and most people in the room snorted (clearly the reputation of the Quibbler carried far if those from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang knew about it) while Rita Skeeter seemed to be in a state of shock with her mouth flopping open like a fish.

“Well, Mr Potter, the Quibbler are more than open to the possibility, but we would have to draw up a contract, what did you have in mind?”

Harry though quickly, “The Quibbler would have exclusive rights to interviews and photographs of Harry Potter, until he leaves Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, for the price of a single Knut.”

There was a gasp that went up around the room as he said this, but Luna ignored it instead choosing to say, “That is a very generous offer, Mr Potter, thank you. I have permission from the owner of the Quibbler to make contracts of under ten galleons without consulting him, so I can agree to this contract right now. I will have the paperwork to you as soon as possible.”

It was nice that she knew him well enough to not try and persuade him to raise the price.

“Thank you, Miss Lovegood. It is nice to be working with you.”

“Likewise, Mr Potter.”

The mirror shut off and there was a shocked silence until Harry turned back to Rita Skeeter.

“Thank you so much for the advice, Miss Skeeter. I’m sorry you are not getting you interview today, but I do not think it would be honest to go against my agreement with the Quibbler, even if I haven’t actually signed the contract yet.”

He bowed to each important person in the room then walked out with all the grace he could muster.

Almost immediately everything overwhelmed him and his breathing began to get erratic and his stomach twisted as he moved, feeling a wave of anxiety of what he had just done flooding him – the articles that were sure to come from this would definitely be making his life a lot harder for the next few weeks.

As soon as he was out of sight and ear shot of the antechamber, he broke into a run, heading for the Hogwarts carriage as quickly as he could without drawing too much attention to himself. Upon reaching it, he ran straight through the door he knew led to Professor McGonagall office, armed with the knowledge that no-one would be in it as she was still in the antechamber and collapsed in a sobbing heap on the floor by the fireplace.

Minerva McGonagall didn’t show her emotions very often, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have them.

She’s wasn’t sure if it made her feel closer to Harry or not because of the fact she blamed herself for his years of abuse – she could of and should have tried harder to stop him being left there or at least checked on him everyone once in a while – despite this, she had a soft spot for her lovable lion, and had done since she first met him.

This meant that when she entered her office – thoughts occupied by how proud she was of the young teenager’s recent actions and maturity - her heart melted at the sight of James and Lily’s son sobbing on her hearth rug.

Softly, she walked over and knelt on the floor next to him (it was well worth the sore knees), scooping him into her arms and holding him despite the flinch that shuddered through him.

“P-professor M-mcGonagall?” camp a hiccoughy sob from the teenager buried in her arms.

“It’s Minerva, remember dear?” a memory came flooding back to her and she gave a sad smile, “Or even what you used to call me when you were very little, Aunt Minnie.”

Harry lifted his head and Minerva had to school her face well to keep from crying herself at the sight of the tear tracks running down his face.

“Y-you knew me when I was little?”

She pulled him back close to her and began to stroke her hand through his hair, something that she had seen Lily do many times, “I did. I used to visit you and your parents a lot.”

Giving another little sob, Harry said, “I really missed a lot, didn’t I?”

Minerva let out a sigh, “You did, and I am filled with grief and self-condemnation every time I think of it. I’m not sure that I’ve actually apologised to you, Harry.”

The head came back up again, “Why? What do you have to apologise for?”

“I left you there. I didn’t think they would treat you right, but I just left you there and never checked on you. That’s what I have to apologise for, and I am deeply sorry, deeply.”

Harry let out a small shrug, all signs of tears gone from his eyes now, “It’s not your fault, you tried to get me away from there.”

Delight flooded through the older witch at the idea that he didn’t blame her, even though she still blamed herself, but she was worried about who he did blame – as it was nearly impossible to not try and pin the blame to someone.

“Do you blame Albus?” she asked quietly, almost scared to hear the answer, and Harry looked her dead in the eye.

“I’ve found it harder to trust him since he refused to let me stay at Hogwarts at the end of first year, even when I told him what was going on but I don’t blame him, no.” he gave a small sigh and dropped his gaze, “For a long time, a part of me blamed myself, but now I have a dad, a sister, an uncle, a godfather, Elpis,” (a soft hiss of agreement came from his pocket) “friends… that part that blamed myself is gone. I didn’t force Vernon to do anything to me, it was all under his own steam, with whatever part of him justified it.”

Minerva was shocked, this boy had wisdom beyond his years, then again, she thought angrily, being abused for twelve years would force you to grow up rather quickly.

“You’re right. You didn’t force anything. You didn’t deserve it.” She told him softly, stroking his hair, “Are you happy now?” it seemed like a bit of a silly question, considering she found him sobbing on the floor, but she thought it was a good way to start off.

“I’m away from my closest friends and family for eight months to participate in a Tournament that I don’t want to be in.” he replied wryly, and she had to restrain an eye roll.

“Let me rephrase, why did I walk into my office to find you on the floor crying, not even on a chair, on the floor – like you’re trying to make my knees give out.” She joked and he offered a weak smile in return.

“I just…” he began, then gave a small sigh and spoke softly, “I just don’t like all this publicity and photographs and interviews.”

“That’s understandable, is there something specific that you find hard?”

“I don’t like being the centre of attention. It makes me feel like I can’t breathe - like my lungs are being squeezed and I just can’t get enough oxygen into them – then my hands shake and I sweat and my brain just gets so full of everything and I can’t think straight, no matter how much I work on my occlumency.”

He was starting to get worked up again despite the hand rubbing soothing circles on his back.

“I mean, we aren’t even being told anything about the first task, it’s like they’re trying to get us killed! Or me at least, maybe someone is? That would explain why I was entered into the Triwizard Tournament, I guess. But how am I supposed to prepare if I don’t know what I’m preparing for?! I don’t…”

He stopped mid-sentence as the hand moved from his back to his hair; how did Minerva know that calmed him down?

As if she knew what he was thinking, the old witch spoke tenderly, “I used to watch your mum do this, when you were little. It would always send you right to sleep or calm you down, but she never told your dad how she did it and he was always trying to get it out of her.”

She smiled at the treasured memories, “I still don’t know how he didn’t drive her up the wall, but they were perfect for each other. In many ways they were like you and Ginny – just switch around the eye colours and you could be doubles. But Ginny acts more like James and you more like Lily, you have her compassion and she has his confidence.”

Harry sat, enthralled; he had heard lots of stories about his parents from Sirius and Remus, but this was someone who wasn’t part of their little group, who watched them grow up and had watched him throughout the first year of his life as well.

“You’re a perfect blend of your parents, you know that? You’ve inherited the best parts of both of them but are still somehow your own person. You’ve been a joy to watch and teacher the last few years, just as your parents were – especially when James matured a bit. I was so proud to see you stand up to that Skeeter woman like that, so proud.”

He couldn’t help tearing up at that, but these were different to the ones that were shed only a few moments earlier - these were happy.

“You can join us, if you want to?” he asked with a laugh.

“Sorry, join what?”

“My odd family, we’re piecing ourselves together and growing in number as time goes on. I used to be a family of one, but now there are a lot more. You’re welcome to join.”

Neither of them could really tell if he was joking of not.

“I’d be honoured.” She told him sincerely before pulling him in for a final hug.

When they moved apart a few seconds later Minerva let out a grimace, “I think I’m stuck.”

Harry laughed - he couldn’t help it – then reached out an arm to pull her up and watched as she smoothed out her robes and hair.

“Here.” She offered her wand, “I’m sure you don’t want to look like you’ve been crying.”

Now it was Harry’s turn to grimace as the embarrassment of what had just happened set in and he let Minerva cast a cleaning spell.

“Now, it’s nearly time for dinner, but I suggest you talk to Mr Diggory, I’m sure he’ll be able to help you get ready for the first Task.”

Harry nodded, then gave a mischievous grin “Thank you, Aunt Minnie.” then rushed from the room before she could response.

Minerva just shook her head with a smile, “Let him always keep that inner child with him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I made a new word, ‘hiccoughy’, you like it? It’s quite chaotic, but I think that’s great.  
> On a more serious note, the mirror names, they use their Animagus names because its just a bit more secure. If anyone wants a refresher of the Animagus names then I’ll be putting them at the start of the next chapter.  
> Also, I had Ollivander use human transfiguration spells because they are known for being hard, anyone can do a simple spell with any wand, so making flowers come out the end doesn't really test anything, does it?  
> By the way, Cassius Warrington’s wand, if you care about why I chose what I chose, then keep reading :)
> 
> Obviously, we don’t know his wand, because he’s mentioned like twice in cannon, but I went with Acacia wood, unicorn hair, twelve, slightly springy.  
> Acacia wood because it’s quite unusual and works with any power but gives the best effects for people with high power. Unicorn hair because it’s steady and consistent, it makes wands that work best with their true owner (which is the same for acacia wood) and it’s hard to turn to the dark arts, which is significant because in my mind, the character of Cassius Warrington is someone who would refuse to join his parents as Death Eaters.  
> The idea of him being set in his views about the evil of Death Eaters, but open to all parentage and magical creatures is the reason I gave him a slightly springy wand. He’s open but cannot be manipulated in any way.  
> The length is just average because there wasn’t anything in particular that pulled me.
> 
> Fun fact, my wand is Acacia wood with a phoenix feather core, 12 ½ inch and slightly yielding flexibility – I’d be interested to know what combinations other people have, if you know :)


	11. Love in every stranger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A morning run and the arrival of the Daily Prophet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven’t updated in a few days because I’ve been a bit stressed and not really in a writing mood, but I’m here now, so enjoy!

The next morning didn’t started off badly, in fact, it was really quite pleasant. Harry awoke early, as he usual did, but he decided to go to the stables to do his occlumency meditation rather than staying in his bed because a few of the pegasi had taken a shine to him.

He was just on his way to the bathroom when he saw Cedric coming out, which was a surprise as he didn’t know that the older boy was ever up this early.

They had a whispered conversation together.

“Morning Ced, could you not sleep?”

“Hey Harry, nah I’m normally up this early, I like to go for a run – I find that keeping fit helps my magic and it makes duelling easier. How come you’re up so early?”

“I’m normally awake this early too, I meditate daily but I thought I’d go and find somewhere different to do my mediations today.” He paused for a moment, thinking about what his friend had said, “Hey Ced, do you think I could come running with you?”

“Sure, if you like. You probably won’t be too fit at first.”

“Probably not.” Harry laughed, “I haven’t done any running in two years.”

“How come you stopped?”

It was an innocent question, but it made Harry hesitate, trying to find the right answer. Sometimes when he was asked questions like this, he would tell an outright lie, and sometimes he would give the blunt truth, depending on how much he trusted the person he was telling.

But he didn’t really want to go with either of those options this time, as Cedric was kind of half-way in between. Instead, he decided to go with a vague truth that someone who knew him well would be able to see the true meaning of.

“It was never really my choice, my relatives made me, so when Severus became my guardian I stopped – although I might have carried on if I had thought of the benefits.”

Cedric gave him a calculating look, but clearly decided not to ask anymore questions, “I’ll meet you outside in five?”

Harry nodded and moved to his bed to get a pair of shorts (the cold weather hadn’t truly set in yet) and a t-shirt.

Five minutes later, the pair set off at a slow jog around the grassy area.

“I normally go around twice, but I suspect that you’ll only make it around once, at a push, we’ll go a bit slower than I normally do.”

“If you’re alright with that, thanks.”

“Yep. Anyway, I wanted to ask you, how come you meditate?”

“Well, initially I go nightmares, so I meditated before I went to be every night so that wouldn’t happen. Then I started to learn occlumency just before the summer holidays, so I do that in the morning.”

“You’re learning occlumency?” Cedric wanted to ask about the nightmares, but he thought that was a bit personal, plus it was unusual for someone so young to be learning occlumency – although, thinking about it, there was nothing usual about Harry Potter.

“Yes.” Harry didn’t elaborate, and Cedric didn’t press it.

“Do you find mediation effective?”

“Yeah, it stopped the nightmares - most of them anyway – and you find yourself calmer. More in touch with your magic as well.”

“Wow, how long have you been meditating for?”

Harry had to think about that; how long had it been?

“Nearly two years, I think. When Severus first became my guardian, he showed me how.”

“Because of your nightmares?”

“Because of my nightmares.” Harry agreed, not offering any further information.

They lapsed into silence as Cedric thought carefully, something clearly happened with his relatives, because he wouldn’t be living with Snape otherwise. But was that what the nightmares were about?

“Would you teach me?” he asked suddenly, not sure what answer he would get in reply.

“Meditation?”

“Yeah, I mean if you don’t want to that’s…”

“No.” Harry cut him off, “I taught some of other friends because one of them was having nightmares and the others thought that it would be a good thing to learn. I don’t mind teaching you – sometimes it’s easier to get someone to tell you what to do rather than trying to read it.”

“Oh cool, that would be great thanks. When would be good for you?”

“How about after lunch? We’ll have to use my bed because I’ve got a charm on it that helps me with mediation, I’ll show you what I mean later.”

“Okay, after lunch. We might have to tell Professor McGonagall what we’re doing if we’re both going to get into one bed.”

Harry let out a laugh, “You’re probably right, it wouldn’t do for anyone to think anything’s going on, especially because I have a girlfriend.”

“Talking of Ginny, I heard about your victory yesterday. I guess congratulations are in order, though did it have to be Hufflepuff you beat?”

“Urm, yes? Besides, it was a close thing!”

“What did the scores come out at?”

“Two hundred to fifty, both teams were on fifty when Ginny caught the snitch, but – if you don’t mind me saying – the Lion seeker is a much better than the Badger one.”

Cedric shrugged, “You’re not wrong, I’ve seen Ginny play chaser and seeker, she’s brilliant at both and a reckon she could be a professional chaser quiet easily.”

“Yeah, that’s what she wants to do. She says that she wants to play for the Holyhead Harpies, but I think her real dream is to play for England.” Harry let a smile cross his face at the thought of his girlfriend doing what she loved every day, “Anyway, you both teams have good keepers, but you’re chasers are a bit better because we only had two nights to train one of ours.”

“Yeah, that was unfortunate.”

“Yep. This tournament has messed up a lot of stuff.” Harry let his frustration and disappointment overwhelm him for a moment before shaking it off, “Anyway, I was wondering if you had any advice for how I might prepare for the first task?”

“Well, what have you been told about it?”

“Just that we can’t know what it is because it’s to test our ‘daring’,” he made sarcastic speech marks in the air with his hands, “and that we can’t have any help from our professors.”

“Hence you coming to me.”

Harry nodded, “Plus you’ve got two years’ experience on me.”

“True, although from what I’ve seen, you know more than most people your age.”

“I have learnt quite a few spells ahead of my year.” Harry was staring to get very out of breath now and his lungs were starting to burn even though they were only halfway way around.

Cedric took pity on him, “Why don’t we have a short break from running and you show me what you’ve got?”

Nodding, Harry stopped and paused to get his breath back before pulling out his wand and demonstrating various stunners, jinxes, hexes and shields mostly from third, fourth and fifth years on a nearby boulder.

When he had finished, he looked up at Cedric, who was staring at him with a shocked expression, which Harry immediately misread.

“I know I’m a bit sloppy but I can put a lot more power into them then that, and I know I need to learn how to do stings of spells and dodge properly, but there hasn’t been much time. Severus was going to start teaching me about duelling and silent casting this year…”

Cedric was gaping and Harry slowly trailed off.

“Are you alright?”

“You know me spells than me…”

“Oh,” Harry laughed, “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“It is. Have you ever tried any NEWT level spells?”

Harry nodded, “One.” He took a deep breath then summoned the memory of him and Ginny dancing by the lake a few months previously.

Lifting his wand, he shouted, “Expecto Patronum!” and was shocked when it wasn’t a stag that came out his wand, but a doe with soft ears and a delicate nose.

It wandered towards him on graceful legs and looked at him questioningly before gambolling around, breaking him out of his shock.

As it dissolved into nothing, Harry turned back to Cedric, who’s mouth was gaping so far open, he thought that his jaw might be broken.

“It’s changed.” He stated and Cedric looked puzzled.

“What do you mean?”

“My Patronus, it used to be a stag, but now it’s a doe.”

“I’ve never heard of that happening before.”

“Me neither, I’ll talk to Sev about it later.” He mused, more to himself.

“Harry? When did you learn to do that?”

“Still not really paying attention, Harry replied, “Second year.”

A few seconds later, when he had heard no response, he looked up to see a very pale Cedric who was just staring at him.

“Ced? You alright?”

“You’re telling me that you perfected a NEWT level spell, that many grown wizards can’t do, in second year?” his voice was nearly a whisper and Harry shuffled his feet uncomfortably as he looked down at the floor.

“Corporeal on the fifth try.”

“What?!”

“I produced a corporeal Patronus on the fifth try.”

“In second year?!”

Harry nodded numbly, regretting having said anything.

“Wow, you must be really powerful!”

Again, Harry nodded.

Cedric stepped towards him, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I just,” He sighed, “It’s just another way I’m different.”

“Hey, don’t worry, I’ll keep this to myself, it was just a bit of a shock at first.”

“Thanks, it was a bit of a shock to me too.”

Not knowing what else to say, Cedric suggested that they keep running, which they did.

“Hey Harry? How come you haven’t skipped a year or two?”

“Partly because I’m only ahead in practical, not written work, and partly because I don’t want to. I don’t want to move ahead of my friends or be the centre of attention or make anyone jealous.”

“That makes sense.”

They jogged in silence for a few moments until Cedric had gathered his thoughts, “Back to your original question about how to train for the first task, I suggest that you learn as many new spells as possible – which shouldn’t be a huge problem based on how fast you can pick them up – and build up your fitness and strength.”

“That makes sense, thanks Cedric.”

“No problem, shall we say that between dinner and bed is task time? We can do most of the research and training then.”

“Y-you want to help me?” Harry faltered.

“Yeah, of course. I said I would, didn’t it?”

“I thought you meant with ideas, not with the actual training. It would be great to have you, but you really don’t need to feel pressured into helping – I haven’t got anything to give you in return.”

“Harry, I don’t feel pressured into helping you, I want to – not to mention that it will help my own magic! Plus, you’re teaching me how to mediate, you are giving me something in return, not that you need to.”

“A few mediation lessons aren’t really the same things a few hours a day.”

Cedric shrugged with a grin, “Teach me the Patronus charm and we’ll call it even.”

Raising an eyebrow, Harry considered the older boy, “Okay – I’m curious to know what your Patronus is anyway.”

Laughing, Cedric gave him a small shove on the shoulder then sped up to race his friend the last hundred meters or so. It was a neck on neck tie that left them gasping for breath from laughter and lack of oxygen.

They stood for a few minutes to get their breath and just as they were about to go in to get changed for breakfast, Viktor Krum appeared out of their… craft? (Harry still hadn’t worked out what it was) with a few friends around him.

On seeing them, Krum broke away from his friends and greeted them with a short bow, which they returned.

“Heir Potter, I apologise for interrupting.”

“Don’t worry Mr Krum, you’re not interrupting anything and please, call me Harry.”

“Very well, please call me Viktor.”

“Viktor.” Harry gave a nod, “Allow me to introduce, my friend, Heir of House Diggory, Cedric Diggory.”

“Heir Diggory, it’s a pleasure.” They bowed to each other.

“Likewise, please call me Cedric.”

“Of course, please call me Viktor.” The famous seeker turned back to Harry, “I came to ask you if you wanted to join me and my friends after breakfast, for a friendly quidditch game?”

“I would love that, thank you. What were you thinking, Hogwarts vs Durmstrang? I’m sure that some of the others would enjoy that.”

“By all means, invite who you would like, although I ask that you don’t invite anyone who will – how do you say? Hound me?”

Harry let out a laugh, “Yes, that is the phrase. I’ll try my best – people do that to me as well - but I doubt they’ll listen to me, being two or three years younger than them, you might have to help me Ced.”

“I think you underestimate how much people respect you Harry, but I’ll help of course.”

“Very well thank you,” Krum looked a little confused by the conversation, but Harry wasn’t sure if that was because of his only passable English skills or for another reason, “We will meet you by Quidditch pitch after breakfast then.”

“Yes, I look forward to it.”

Ten minutes later, Harry and Cedric entered the Ballroom for breakfast and saw that most people had already arrived so not many tables were left.

Usually, the twelve Hogwarts students sat on two tables with no other students, but today the seats they usually sat on were taken by a pair of Beauxbatons students, so they had to look around for a new place to sit after they had loaded their plates from the long table in the centre of the room.

The table next to them happened to have two free seats, the other four being filled by two boys and two girls who looked to be about Harry’s age, so they moved towards it.

“Bonjour, je m’appelle Harry.” He greeted them with a bow, “Et c’est Ceric. Can we sit here, s'il vous plait?”

“Bonjour, Harry, Cedric.” The boy closest to them, who had sandy blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a wide smile, greeted them, “S'il vous plait, sit. Je m’appelle Nolan, it’s good to meet you.”

He seemed to struggle a bit with his English, but he seemed to know enough to be able to hold a simple conversation.

“Merci.” Harry nodded as he and Cedric slipped into their chairs.

Nolan pointed to the boy next to him who looked to be quite tall with dark brown hair and eyes, “C’est mon ami, Aaron.” He motioned to a girl who had bright blonde hair and was clutching Aaron’s hand, “La petite amie d'Aaron, Estelle, et son amie, Holly.”

Holly looked a lot like Estelle, except her face was rounder and her eyes were more green than blue. The small group all looked very friendly and Harry thought that they couldn’t have picked a better table.

“Nice to meet you. What year are you all in?”

Nolan seemed to be trying to work out the question for a few seconds, but when he managed it, he answered immediately, “We are fourth years. You?”

“I am a fourth year; Cedric is a sixth year.”

Holly spoke up in a singsong voice that reminded Harry of Luna, “You are the fourth Champion, no?”

Harry grimaced, “Yes.”

He was saved from more questioning when an owl arrived with the morning addition of the Daily Prophet. Giving the barn owl that had delivered it a slip of bacon (he pre-paid his years subscription so he didn’t need to give it any money), he picked it up in anticipation, knowing that Rita Skeeter would have a lot to say about his actions from the day before.

Sure enough, the article about him was on the front page. It gave a brief summary of the Weighing of the Wands, but mostly focused on him and how he had refused a deal with the Daily Prophet to take a contract with the Quibbler.

Naturally, there were a lot of snide comments about the sanity of the owner of the Quibbler, which did irritate Harry because he knew and liked Luna’s father, but he couldn’t help but be a little happy with the article. It cleared showed that he was against the Daily Prophet and that he had a deal with the Quibbler.

“Well, that’s much better than I was hoping for.” Harry laughed, and Cedric looked at him confused.

“How is this good? They’re dragging Luna and her father through the mud.” Cedric had a soft stop for Luna and Xenophilius as he had grown up not far from them.

“You’re right, but nothing I do will stop that. It’s good because it’s free advertising that I have a deal with the Quibbler, their readership is going to skyrocket.”

“Ha, I guess you’re right.”

“Yep, let me call her – she should be up by now.” He pulled out his mirror, “Activate, Ayla. Hey Luna, how are you?”

“I’m good thanks Harry, I see you’ve made some new friends.”

“Yeah, they’re being very nice to us, Luna.” He gave her a grin, more than used to her knowing almost everything, “Have you seen the Prophet yet?”

“Yes, its very good advertising, Daddy says that our subscription numbers have already doubled.”

“That’s good, I’m sorry that Skeeter made all those comments about your Dad’s newspaper.”

“It’s alright Harry, it’s not your fault, we’re used to it.”

Harry’s heart went out to his friend, “Hey Luna, what do you think about having your first official interview later? You come up with some things to ask me about the tournament and I’ll answer them.”

Luna’s face lit up, “That sounds amazing! How about three o’clock? That’s four o’clock for you, I can have the questions by then.”

“Sounds good Luna. Now, I’m sure it’s time for your breakfast, I’ll see you later. Tell everyone I miss them.”

“Yes, I’ll tell them that you love them.”

“That’s not what I said, Luna.”

“But it’s what you meant.”

Harry gave a laugh, “I guess you’re right, later.”

He gave her a quick wave then disactivated the mirror, slipping it back into his robes and looking up to find that the four Beauxbatons students all had him fixed with surprised and curious expressions.

With a sigh, he explained about the heated discussion – fight - with Rita, the contract with the Quibbler and how it was owned by his friend’s dad – apparently a lot of stories had been circulating around since the day before so it was nice for them to hear what actually happened.

When he had finished, Nolan had a single question left for him.

“How did you talk to your friend?”

Harry pulled the mirror back out and showed it to him.

“You know the big mirrors that were used for the other schools to watch the Choosing? This is the original, smaller version. My Godfather and Dad designed them when they were in school so that they could talk to each other when they were in separate detentions, they were quite the pair of troublemakers.”

“Impressive.”

With a grin, Harry had to agree that yes, his godfather was quite impressive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I don’t really know what this chapter is. Harry has some new friends now? I don’t know if it’s just me but meh.  
> Anyway, the next chapter shouldn’t be too long. The next chapter is the first task!


	12. Love in every stranger [P2]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part one of the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry it’s been a bit longer than it normally is! :(  
> I was struggling with this chapter, so it was going to about a week between the last update and this one, but then I moved into college this week and everything went to hell.  
> From Sunday to Wednesday, I didn’t have wifi so I couldn’t upload, then when I finally got wifi I found that my college has blocked A03 – I am not happy!  
> Basically, the only way I can get on A03 is by using my data, which I can’t do on my laptop and I write on word, which I can’t access on my phone, so I can’t upload from my phone. Hence the gap between chapters being closer to two weeks than one.  
> Long story short, from now on, you will only be getting one chapter a week because I can only upload when I’m at home at the weekend. If I’m honest, you probably wouldn’t be get more than once a week updates from now, even if I could update at college – I think that I’m going to be very busy from now on.  
> Anyway, this is what it is now, as annoying as that it. But it’s good to be back, so enjoy!

The month before the first task seemed to fly by in a whirl of lessons and training for the first task.

Harry’s first interview with the Quibbler had quadrupled the readership and it seemed that Rita Skeeter was getting a lot of stick for it, but she had been getting a few ‘good’ stories about people close to Harry, including one about a private conversation between him and Ginny that he still didn’t know how she got hold of.

It wasn’t anything damaging – just relationship gossip – but it was still irritating, as Harry rather liked to keep his private life private, as he had told the nosey reporter only a few weeks previously.

The quidditch game between the Hogwarts and Durmstrang students became a weekly occurrence and often ended with Harry and Viktor sitting together to eat lunch.

It turned out that they had quite a lot in common – they were both followed everywhere by press and neither particularly enjoyed it, people always wanted to make friends with them and treating them differently because of it (Krum had many rants about how his own Headmaster treated him much better than any other pupil).

Skeeter had something to say about their new friendship as well, again writing like she was there at the game and then at the meal, which Harry knew she couldn’t have been.

Then again, that particular article didn’t shed a bad light on them for the most part, in fact it was more centred on the bonds forming between the schools – although she did have something to say about the dark reputation of Durmstrang, of course.

As promised, Harry had taught Cedric both how to meditate (he was partial to visualisation rather than colour or occlumency based) as well as how to do the Patronus Charm. It had taken him quite a while (and many bars of chocolate) to get the hang of it, but he managed to produce a fully corporeal Patronus a few days before the first task.

His Patronus was a German Shepherd, which he was delighted with, and Harry thought suited him perfectly.

Harry had come a long way with his training; he was now a lot fitter (he had even starting to develop some firm muscle, not that he really noticed) and he had increased his spell catalogue threefold with the help of books both from the Hogwarts library (which he received with the help of Hermione and Draco) and the Beauxbatons library, which was even bigger - and much better organised – than the Hogwarts library, something that Hermione was _extremely_ jealous of.

He had explored the palace and talked to a few of the statues of the old Headmasters and Headmistresses in the entrance hall, one of whom happened to be a Malfoy! He seemed to be asleep whenever Harry was there, but the others had told him that Henri Malfoy was the (fifth out of fourteen) Head of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic from 1703-1768 and was the one who gave the school the outstanding reputation it enjoyed in modern day.

Draco had heard about his ancestors being from France, but not about his something-great grandfather, which Harry found curious.

In the first week, Harry even made an acquaintance out of the Defence professor – Professor Bernard, who looked to be as old as Dumbledore and had apparently been teaching at Beauxbatons for one hundred years – who kindly allowed them to use his classroom from practise when it got too wet or cold outside and occasionally gave them small pointers.

In his spare time – which wasn’t nearly so regular now he had to train for the first task – he continued to work on his Earth elemental, progressing to the point of being able to genetically copy none-magical plants (or with very little magic, as everything has a little magic in it) if he had the original plant to copy from next to him.

It was slow progress, but the amount of time it took him to grow a vine was getting quicker. He focused on this because he had read that it was very useful to be able to grow vines in order to restrain someone, if you didn’t have, or couldn’t use, your wand.

He mirror-called Ginny and Severus daily and his other friends as often as he had time for, and before he knew it, the day of the first task was upon him.

Stepping out of the Hogwarts carriage in order to go for a run to clear his head before the first task, Harry was stopped short as he came face to face with a high wall of white that looked like it was made out of tent material.

Cassius Warrington stepped out of the carriage beside him and also looked at the white that was filling half of the large grassy area.

“Looks like stands for people to sit in. The task arena must be on the other side.” Harry commented and Cassius merely nodded.

Thinking that he probably shouldn’t run around the stands less he see something that he wasn’t supposed to, Harry made for a tree to transform behind so that could go for a fly instead, leaving the other Hogwarts Champion, who was clearly lost in his own thoughts, staring up at the stands.

As soon as it was safe, he took a breath and transformed into Azul before taking to the sky, flitting between branches and around leaves, having to use all his mind concentrating on not crashing.

Flying as a bird was a different kind of freedom as flying on a broom; he had to work harder at Azul – it was more like the feeling of running – steering was very different, and he felt the wind much more as he was so tiny, but at the same time, he was one with the wind, rather than going against it as he did on his broom.

All in all, it was a good bit of exercise and stress relief, dipping and diving in the sky.

After he transformed back, he decided that he wouldn’t be able to settle to anything, so he would go and see the Pegasi herd, some of whom he’d made friends with.

Peering into the light, airy stables, he noticed that they were empty, so he absentmindedly wandered around to the clearing behind that the Pegasi liked to relax in when they didn’t need shelter. Sure enough, there was the herd of seven pure white Pegasi laying and standing about in the sun.

Harry greeted the alpha male first (he had gold patches on his wings), as a sign of courtesy, then moved towards the female who had taken a shine to him. She was a delicate thing, with a long neck and a soft muzzle as well as her filly who was about six months old and only just developing her wings.

The mother (the caretaker had told him that she was called Jewel) was lying down in the sun and Harry lay next to her, nestled in her wings with her filly, who had been named Jasmine.

“Hey Jaz.” He greeted the filly softly and he received a gentle snort in return.

“Today’s the day.” He commented with a sigh, running his hand with Jasmine’s silky main.

His stomach as churned and twisted as he thought about the coming task. It didn’t matter how much preparation he had done; he still didn’t know what was going to happen or if he was even going to survive the first task.

Chances were that someone wanted him dead, otherwise he wouldn’t have been entered into the Tournament at all – he had been looking forward to a peaceful year after all.

At least his friends and family were coming to support him; the eight friends together again, plus his Dad, Uncle and Godfather. He hadn’t seen them for a month and, despite having talked to everyone almost daily, he missed them fiercely.

Harry was pulled out of his deep thoughts by someone shouting his name.

Placing a kiss on the end of Jasmine’s nose and a pat on Jewel’s side, he rose and made his way around the stables.

“Hey Harry! I thought you’d be here.” it was Cedric grinning at him, “Your family is round the front.”

“Thanks, Ced!”

The older boy wished Harry luck as he raced through the school building, dodging the people who gave him either dirty or confused looks as he rushed past with a huge (and possibly slightly maniacal) grin contorting his face.

As he came out the grand front doors, there was a shout of “There he is!” then a red-haired flash made for him and jumped into his arms.

He took it easily - more than used to Ginny’s habit of jumping into his arms whenever she hadn’t seen him in a while – and didn’t even stagger, instead burying his face in his girlfriend’s jasmine scented hair and giving a happy sigh, while she clung to him, her arms draped around his neck and her legs wrapped around his hips, almost purring happily.

“Ginny.” He murmured, closing his eyes as he took in the scent of her hair and felt her arms around him, “I’ve missed you.”

She flipped his hair out of the way and planted a kiss of his lips, emerald eyes looking into chocolate ones, “I’ve missed you too, Harry.”

“How are you?”

“Better now I’m with you.”

He made to bury his nose back in her hair, but they were cut off by a bright flash of light and Harry put Ginny down (but kept his arm around her waist, not willing to let her so soon after getting her back) to glare at the person who was stood nearby in her extravagant green outfit and hair in tight ringlets.

“Ahh, young love.”

“Please leave, Miss Skeeter. I have told you before that I would like to keep my personal life private, so kindly refrain from taking pictures of me without my permission.”

His magic began to swirl around him at the persistence of Rita Skeeter in ruining his days, especially when it came to Ginny and she could clearly feel the danger in his slightly crackling magic as she turned to her photographer and motioned for him to follow her out to the stands.

Once she was gone, there were smiles, hugs, greetings and questions being thrown around everywhere.

“What’s the library like?!”

“Absolutely awful, definitely not worth going to.”

“What?! But it’s Beauxbatons! It has to have a good library!”

“Mione, calm down. I was joking.”

“Oh.” (glares then looks excited)

“But we’re not visiting it today.”

(pouts)

“Have you met any girls yet?” (wiggles eyebrows suggestively)

“I have a girlfriend, Pads!” (motions to Ginny, who then swats at Sirius)

“You’ve been cheating on my sister?!” (panicking and looking like he’s about to hit someone)

“No.” (firmly) “I have not been cheating on your sister.”

“I heard a rumour that you’ve found a Crumple-Horned Snorkack, is that true?”

“Sorry, no. I thought the Goblins were hiding them?”

“They aren’t hiding them; they just live there.”

“Ah, right.” (confused)

“Have you made any allies?”

“I’ve made friends.”

“That’s not the same thing.”

“Close enough.”

“Humph.”

“Can I meet that Mood Dragon you were telling me about?”

“Iridiana? I’m not sure, you’d have to talk to Madam Mafalda about that, sorry.”

“So, how different is Beauxbatons compared to Hogwarts?”

“In some ways very, but in other ways not so much. I feel like I might notice the differences more if I was in lessons as well. But there are very pretty grounds, as you can see.”

“And greenhouses?”

“There are some around the side, next to the stables but they are very similar to the Hogwarts ones. I’ll show you if we have time.”

“Thanks, that would be amazing!”

“Are you prepared for the task?”

“As much as I can be. I’ve heard that most people normally cheat and find out what the first task is, but I don’t think that any of us know.”

“Well, you’ll find out soon enough.”

“Yep, I don’t know if I want it to just happen, or if I want to put it off for as long as possible.”

Severus didn’t say anything, just pulled him into a hug that was a little tighter and longer than normal. Clearly Harry wasn’t the only one worried about the task ahead.

Finally, Harry declared that they had to go to the arena and led them around the school instead of going through it, knowing that a few people (not mentioning names, but Draco, Hermione and Remus) would get side-tracked in there and never leave.

Everyone except Severus, Ginny and Hermione left him with short nods and tense smiles from his friends and hair ruffles from Remus and Sirius,

They moved into the Champion’s tent (just a simple white tent with benches for them to wait on) the four engaged on quiet conversation, trying to keep Harry’s mind off the upcoming task while filling him in on the news from back home.

An unknown amount of time later, the other Champions and the Heads came in, which was everyone’s queue to go and find seats in the stands.

Ginny pressed a reassuring kiss into his cheek while Hermione rubbed his back and wished him luck, then Severus moved towards him and pulled him into a hug, rocking them gently.

“You’ll be fine, Son.”

“I know Dad, it will all be over soon anyway.”

Harry greeted everyone, receiving (outwardly) calm responses from Madam Mafalda and Professor McGonagall, tense nods from Cassius Warrington and Viktor Krum, and slightly haughty sniffs from Fleur Delacour and Igor Karkaroff.

He could tell that all of the Champions were nervous, though they all hid it well, and his stomach as beginning to twist violently again.

Before he had time to truly panic, the French Minister of Magic walked in and cleared his throat, motioning for the Champions to gather around him and for their Heads to stand behind them.

“Thank you all for gathering and welcome to the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. I would like to congratulate you before you even begin, I’m sure that you will each do your school proud.” He smiled around at them kindly then clapped his hands, making Harry jump.

“Now, I can give you a bit more information about the task today. Professor Karkaroff, Madam Mafalda, Professor McGonagall and I will be the four judges, each giving you a score out of ten for your performance; that gives you a score out of forty in total. Scores and comments will be given after all of the Champions have competed.”

He pulled a small red leather pouch out of his robes and he talked, “Your task is an obstacle course made up of four obstacles, each representing one element.”

Harry nearly groaned allowed, it was like Lady Fate was playing with him. He had to go up against the four elements, but he couldn’t use his elemental powers if he wanted to keep them secret – which he definitely did, this wasn’t worth revealing them unless he had no other choice.

Giving his head a small shake, he pulled himself back to what Minister Brodeur was saying.

“At the end of the course, there is a podium. On this podium is a cube, you must collect this cub and take it with you to the tent at the other end, where you will receive your scores – the cube is very important, as it contains a clue for the Second Task. To decide the order that you will tackle the obstacle course, you will choose a tile from this bag.”

The Minister held it out the bag to Viktor Krum, who was the furthest from Harry – he pulled out a three. Fleur went next, flicking her hair as she pulled out a two. Cassius was expressionless as he pulled out one and Harry gulped as he pulled out the number four.

He really didn’t want to go last. Although, thinking about it, he wouldn’t have been very happy with any of the other numbers either – there was really no winning when it came to this Tournament.

The Heads wished their Champions good luck, Professor McGonagall giving Harry a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder, then left the tent with the instructions for them to change into their Task robes and for Cassius to go when he heard the bang.

There was a tense silence in the tent as they each pulled on their robes, which were their school colours (sky and cadet blue for Fleur, blood red and brown for Viktor, green and silver for Cassius and scarlet and gold for Harry) with their names and schools on the back, and specifically cut to allow movement.

Before long, the Champion’s heard the voice of Minister Brodeur.

“Welcome everyone, to the first Task of the Triwizard Tournament!”

A cheer erupted and Harry guessed that the whole of Beauxbatons was sat, ready to watch them, which did absolutely nothing for the anxious waves washing over him.

“For this Task, the four Champions must get past the four obstacles before them and collect the cube that you can see at the end! They will then get scored for level of magic used and speed – points will be taken away for any injuries that occur!”

Harry rolled his eyes at that, thinking that it might have been nice for them to have been told have the points worked.

“Without further ado! I welcome Cassius Warrington, Champion of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!”

The bang that they were all waiting for was heard, and Cassius moved out of the tent, gripping his wand with a determined look on his otherwise unreadable face.

Harry, Viktor and Fleur all sat in tense silence, listening to the commentary and waiting for their own turn with rising anxiety.

They could hear the Minister cheerfully shouting (although his voice sounded a little odd, a translation charm, Harry guessed) about what - for them - could be very dangerous, and it put he on edge, especially as the commentary didn’t give anything away.

“Here is Hogwarts Champion, Cassius Warrington – first to try his skills on our special obstacle course!”

“He’s decided to go through!”

“And it only took him five attempts! Impressive!”

“The second obstacle!”

“Warrington’s looking very wary, and for good reason! Is is something in there?!”

“There! He’s seen it!”

“Nicely done! A strong defeat from Mr Warrington, forward the next obstacle!”

“Wow, that concentration!”

“He seems to be taking a long time to come up with a plan.”

“Here we go! Yes! It seems all that thinking payed off!”

“The fourth obstacle! Is this one the most difficult?”

“Ooh! That looked nasty!”

“But that was a nice piece of magic!”

“Aaannd, Mr Warrington is the first Champion to compete the obstacle course and collect his cube! Well done to Cassius Warrington of Hogwarts! As soon as the course is reset, we will invite the next Champion out!”

Harry could hear when Cassius was doing well and when he wasn’t from the reactions from the crowd –there were more cheers than gasps, which told that the other Hogwarts Champion had done very well.

The bang was heard again, and Fleur made her way out of the tent, flicking her hair nervously.

This time, Harry paid less attention to the commentary (although he did hear some) and more to what the obstacles might be.

Fire? Maybe he had to get through moving fire pillars or get past a fire breathing animal. The only animal he could think of that breathed fire was a dragon, and he was sure he would have been able to tell if Cassius Warrington had gone up against a dragon.

“Oh, going that way was a bad decision it seems!”

Water? What animals lived in water? There were some he learned about in Defence a few years previously; but he wasn’t sure how much he could remember about them. Maybe that obstacle had nothing to do with water animals. But he couldn’t think of anything else it might be. His nervous energy was disrupting his thinking.

“Woah, it nearly got her then! Quick spell work though!”

Air? How could air be dangerous? Maybe it was a flying animal. A hippogriff maybe? But that didn’t seem hard enough. A first year could get past a hippogriff if they knew to bow.

“Miss Delacour wasn’t expecting that! Ooh, that looks nasty!”

Earth? Maybe he had to go against a badger, that would be nice and easy. He didn’t think it would be anything to do with plants, so maybe it was stone or something like that? He was become desperate as he tried to stop the twitching in his leg.

“Nicely done… No! I don’t think that Miss Delacour expected there to be something else! She’s got out though.”

“Aaannd, our second Champion has got her cube! Congratulations to Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons for completing the course! Although she will lose some points for those injuries.”

After a few minutes, the noise sounded for Viktor Krum to begin.

“Good luck.”

Viktor gave a determined, grateful nod, then exited the tent, leaving Harry alone in his thoughts. As he had with Cassius, he listened to what the French Minister was saying, trying to pick up any clue at all as to what the obstacles were.

“Wow! That was a powerful spell! It took Mr Krum only three spells, while it took Mr Warrington five to get the same result.”

“That’s an interesting tactic! Has it worked? It would appear so! The obstacle had been defeated!”

“Ah, Mr Krum is being a little more careful than Miss Delacour! That is a spell I have not seen before!”

“Oh no! It would seem that the tactic that has been working so well for Mr Krum so far has slipped up now! Can he salvage this? Yes, he can! And Viktor Krum of Durmstrang is the third Champion to get his cube! Congratulations Mr Krum!”

The wait between Viktor Krum getting his cube and Harry being signalled to begin with the bang was the longest two minutes of his life.

Usually, Harry was able to occupy himself for long periods of time – something he had learned from his childhood of being locked in a cupboard for hours on end with no toys.

Today he was having no luck.

Over the past few years, if he wasn’t about to find something to do then he almost always had Elpis to talk to, but today she was with Hermione, not being allowed with him while he competed (even if not many people knew that she existed).

He just wanted this to be over already.

When he was least expecting it, the signal was heard and he stood up shakily, wiping his sweaty hands on his robe and gripping his wand tightly to avoid it falling out of his hand which didn’t seem to want to corporate.

Cautiously, he moved the tent flap and made his way into the weak winter sun.

He heard Minister Brodeur announce his name, but the commentary faded into the background as he focused on what was before him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ops, no-one likes cliff-hangers, sorry about that.  
> This was going to be one chapter, not two, but I hated the start, so I expanded and then it was too long.
> 
> Anyway! Challenge for you, each of the questions Harry gets asked when he meets his friends is asked by a different person, but can you work out which question is asked by which person?  
> Clue, neither Ginny nor Sev ask a question, so your options are Hermione, Daphne, Luna, Ron, Draco, Neville, Sirius and Remus.
> 
> Next week might end up being a double update, depending on if everything goes as planned this week (how likely that is, I’m not sure), so look out for that!


	13. Love in every stranger [P3]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part two of the first Task!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, sorry for leaving you on a cliff-hanger for a week.  
> Other than that, I don't have much to say. So, enjoy!

_When he was least expecting it, the signal was heard and he stood up shakily, wiping his sweaty hands on his robe and gripping his wand tightly to avoid it falling out of his hand which didn’t seem to want to corporate._

_Cautiously, he moved the tent flap and made his way into the weak winter sun._

_He heard Minister Brodeur announce his name, but the commentary faded into the background as he focused on what was before him._

A wall. There was just a wall in front of him. About three meters tall and the whole width of the course – about six meters – pushed up against the stands. Clearly, he wasn’t supposed to go around, so over or through it was.

He craned his neck upwards, wincing in the pale winter sun, and saw that there were a few somethings on top of the wall. They looked like some kind of small statue, but knowing the wizarding world like he did, Harry was more than willing to bet that they were not _just_ statues – they probably had a murderous streak.

It was impossible to tell how deep the wall was, but he guessed that it would pretty deep so that it wasn’t too easy to blast through.

Not wanting to risk the statues who were on top of the wall, Harry stepped back and levelled his wand, shooting an overpowered blasting hex towards it and watching with satisfaction as a large section of it crumble to the ground.

Ignoring the reactions of the crowd and not really hearing the commentary, he stepped carefully through the wreckage of the wall and moved cautiously onto the next obstacle.

He came face to face with a shallow lake that was, again, the width of the course so that he couldn’t go around it.

Knowing that there would be something in there, he slowly waded into the water – which was more than a little chilly, but he didn’t really notice – and kept his eyes peeled for any sign of movement.

Suddenly, he felt long fingers clawing at his ankles.

Looking down in a bit of a panic, he saw that it was a Grindylow, so he sent a small blasting hex at it, dissolving it into nothing but a swirl of blood and making a little bile rise in his throat.

He waded forward a few more steps until he was halfway across the lake.

Something moved in the water next to him and he sent a jet of boiling hot water towards the newt like creature. A Kappa he realised.

Moving forwards again, he saw what looked like a horse, but with a greenish tint to its coat and seaweed for a main and tale.

Realising that it was a Kelpie and that was it far enough away from him that it wouldn’t pose a problem, Harry waded the last few feet and stepped out of the water, shooting a quick drying charm at his legs then looking for the next obstacle.

He noticed that there was a crack or chasm in the ground, stretching so that he couldn’t go around it and just wide enough that he couldn’t jump over it.

Edging carefully towards it, he looked over the edge and felt a wave of heat from what seemed to be a bonfire at the bottom of the chasm. On the bonfire were salamanders who were about thirty centimetres in length.

Harry couldn’t understand why there were Salamanders there, they weren’t exactly known for being dangerous, in fact, they were quite playful. That was, until he saw the black lines on their backs.

Only one type of Salamander had those black lines on their backs, the Spitting Salamander, who was very protective of their fire and would spit small flames to stop you coming too close.

Really wishing he could fly (or hover?) like Madam Mafalda could, Harry weighed up his options.

After a few moments of thought, he decided to transfigure a stone into a plank of wood, which he could lay across the gap and walk along while shielding from the Salamanders. It seemed like a solid plan and he was impressed by how little time it had taken him to come up with it.

Carefully, he selected a stone and muttered the incantation, clearly picturing how he wanted it to turn out in his mind’s eye and projecting that with his magic.

Seconds later, there was a plank of wood before him, long enough to go over the gap, wide enough that he could walk along it and thick enough to hold his weight.

He laid it over the chasm - much to the curiosity of the Salamanders - then took a deep breath before erecting a shield that would be absorb the small flame balls (if it deflected it back then he would have some very angry Salamanders on his hands) and stepping onto the plank, testing it with his feet.

Cautiously he moved, taking one small step at a time so he wasn’t overbalanced by the forces periodically hitting shield.

When he was halfway across, his shield broke, and he had to lunge to the side to avoid a flame ball colliding with him. It just missed him, and he felt the heat go past his arm, singeing the hairs a little as he fought to regain his balance and recast the shield at the same time.

He was successful – just – and began to move forwards again, jumping the last bit and rolling out of the reach of the Salamanders, sighing in relief that he only had one obstacle left.

There was a curtain in front of him and he pushed around it carefully, feeling that he had now entered a magically sealed dome. Clearly, whatever was in here was too dangerous to let near the audience.

Sure enough, within seconds of him entering there was movement and a fifty-strong group of small reddish orange birds with huge beaks flew at him, snapping their beaks hungrily.

Desperately, Harry tried to find the information of what these were from deep in his brain.

Suddenly it hit him, they were a magical type of lorikeet who acted like piranhas and could strip a hippogriff in three seconds – they would make short work of him for sure.

Luckily, he had seen these in a book less than a week before and they had one key weakness: fire.

Casting an overpowered Incendio and stopping the strange birds when they were only seconds from devouring him, Harry took a shaky breath before moving through the next curtain.

Still feeling uneasy, he stepped forward with uncertainty. He would have thought that it would be over now, he had faced four obstacles, but he wasn’t sure that the judges wouldn’t have snuck in an extra thing just when they would have relaxed.

Just as he predicted, there was another curtain in front of him that seemed to have something on it; small black shapes with wings – Doxys, he realised as he moved towards them.

Shooting a few Knockback Jinxes to blast the small biting fairies unconscious, he moved through the curtain and breathed a sigh of relief as he saw a small silver cube on a pedestal in between him and the final tent.

Moving quickly, he plucked the cube from the stand and moved into the tent, not even hearing the applause that erupted around him or seeing the Great Hall of Hogwarts through a huge mirror that was hovering above his head, as he concentrated on the fact that he had completed the task without injury.

Almost in a state of shock, Harry moved towards the Healer who was required to check them over and stood as she waved her wand over him then gave a nod, signalling that he was completely fine.

Looking around at the other Champions, he saw that they were each sat on a bed with various injuries.

Cassius had bandages on his arms and his face had little scratches all over it, Fleur had a bandage around her thigh and one arm seemed to have a weird stone effect to it. Krum seemed unharmed and was just sat, quietly brooding – something he seemed to enjoy.

Harry sat down and mediated, trying to clear his head, until he heard Cedric calling for him.

“Harry, everyone’s healed now. They’re going to give us our scores.”

With a relaxed sigh, Harry nodded and hopped off the bed; he couldn’t be more relieved that the first Task was over.

As the four emerged from the tent, Cassius still swaddled in bandages (although Fleur’s injuries were now healed), and the crowd erupted into applause that made Harry cringe, especially when it carried on for more than a minute.

Eventually, the raucous noise quietened down and Minister Brodeur began to talk.

“It’s time for us to award our points to each of four Champions for the first Task!” there was more applause which he had to wait for before he could continue, “We have heard a Healer report from our specialist Healer for each of our Champions which we are taking into consideration for these scores. We will start with the first Champion, Cassius Warrington of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!”

The Minister motioned to Professor McGonagall who was sat at the far end of the judges table to him. She cleared her throat and held up her wand.

“Mr Warrington used a range of successful and powerful spells against the obstacles; however, he was injured quite severally, I award him seven points.”

A maroon ribbon shot out of her wand and formed a seven that hovered above her head.

Madam Mafalda spoke next, “I have nothing else to add other than I commend your cautious and calculating methods. I award seven points.”

A light blue ribbon seven joined Professor McGonagall above Madam Mafalda. She then turned to Professor Karkaroff, who merely grunted and sent up a blood red four, making Harry’s blood boil – if he wasn’t going to fair then what was the point in him even being there?

Minister Brodeur cleared his throat, “I have nothing else to add, I also award seven points.” A silver seven formed spoke, “That gives Cassius Warrington a total of twenty-five – congratulations Mr Warrington!”

There was polite applause around the stadium, while the four numbers joined together to form a twisted twenty-five in maroon, light blue, blood red and silver, which the Minister waited to finish before allowing Professor McGonagall to move onto Fleur.

“Miss Delacour, you demonstrated quick thinking throughout, but you were unfortunately injured twice. I award six points.”

“Fleur, despite your injuries, you collected your cube, and for that I commend you. I also award seven points.”

Once again, Professor Karkaroff simply grunted and shot a four out of his wand to sit next to the six and seven already there.

With a hint of an eyeroll from the French Minister as the crowd booed the final score was given, “I have nothing else to add, I award six points. That gives Fleur Delacour a total score of twenty-three – congratulations Miss Delacour!”

Most of the stadium was made up of Beauxbatons students who cheered enthusiastically despite clearly thinking that it could have gone better for them.

Harry decided then that he liked it here; Hogwarts would always be his home, but the students of there wouldn’t have hesitated to boo him for getting less than half score – they were quick to turn against people, he had noticed over the years.

“Next, we have Viktor Krum! Professor McGonagall, if you would like to begin please?”

“Mr Krum, you used a powerful and effective blasting spell, however there was not much variety, you used the same spell for all obstacles. I award eight points.”

“I agree with Professor McGonagall, your lack of spell variety almost caught you out when you angered the lorikeets at the final hurdle, only just avoiding injury. I also award you eight points.”

Professor Karkaroff gave an out of character laugh and spoke in a booming voice, “Perfect, my boy! I award the full ten points!”

Viktor looked a little repulsed by his Headmaster’s clear favouritism but nodded politely anyway, rolling his eyes a subtly at Harry as he did so.

“Despite your different methods, you completed the Task the quickest, I award you nine points. That gives Viktor Krum a total score of thirty-five – congratulations Mr Krum for the highest score yet!”

As the crowd cheered, Harry waited nervously for his own scores to be given. He had told himself that the scores didn’t matter to him, but in reality, he did want to get an acceptable score, more for himself than anyone else, just to prove that he could do it despite his age.

He didn’t have long to wait.

“Mr Potter.” Professor McGonagall gave him a rare smile, “You collected your cube without injury and used an impressive range of spells. I award the full ten points.”

Not being able to stop his grin, Harry looked at Madam Mafalda who did have a glimmer of in her admiration eyes, “Impressive Mr Potter, the only reason I do not award full points is that you did not have the fastest time, that went to Mr Krum. Nine points.”

Harry nodded appreciatively before turning to Professor Karkaroff, smirking slightly as he was awarded a begrudging seven – clearly the Durmstrang Headmaster couldn’t find as much wrong as he wanted to.

Finally, was Minister Brodeur, “I commend you, Mr Potter, I can find nothing wrong with your performance, so I give you the full ten points. That’s a total of thirty-six for Harry Potter, putting him in first place! Our youngest Champion is first!”

Despite being slightly uncomfortable at all the eyes on him and the raucous applause, he couldn’t help but grin as he gave the crowd a cheeky wave then turned to the other Champions. He moved up the line, congratulating each of them with a bow as he went.

Viktor also sent congratulations back, not seeming to be too annoyed that he didn’t win, Fleur was not as haughty as she had been in the past - Harry could see what was almost a glimmer of admiration in her eyes – and Cassius let no emotion through his mask, simply giving a bow.

Harry couldn’t help considering the older boy as he waited for the noise to die down. He had seen a kinder side to him that he let out when he was with Yasmin, but he wore a mask almost permanently and didn’t seem to make friends easily – in fact, he talked to Harry the most out of everyone and they barely had a conversation a day.

He was certainly an intriguing person.

Suddenly, Harry was broken out of his thoughts by a new announcement from Minister Brodeur.

“Yes, yes. Congratulations to Mr Potter. But now, the instructions for the second Task!” There was immediately silence as the Champions considered the cubes in their hands which were reflective silver with strange squiggly lines on.

“Each Champion collected their cube, and within the cube is the clue for the second Task. It is your job to solve this clue and prepare for the Task - with no other information than this – which will be held on the twenty-fifth of February.”

As he watched his friends and family find their way down from the stands, he couldn’t help being a little grumpy at the lack of information, but he was welcomingly distracted by his girlfriend pouncing on him.

“You did it! You did it! You did it!” she sang happily while he swung her around in a circle with a grin on his face.

“Yep, I did! One down, two to go.” He turned to look at his Dad, “And nothing bad has happened yet.”

Severus laid a comforting hand on his shoulder, “Just stay alert and everything will be okay.” He gave his son a soft smile, “But enough of that! Well done, I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks Dad.”

Harry sunk into his father’s arms, until he was pulled into another embrace by an almost frantic Hermione who seemed to be trying to squeeze him to death.

“H-Hermione, h-have to b-breath.” He wheezed and his sister let him go with an only slight apologetic smile.

“I was worried about you. But that was some amazing magic!”

“Thanks, Mione.” He smiled then gave a sneeze where his nose had been irritated by her bushy hair.

“Aw, that was such a cute sneeze!” Ginny cooed.

Harry tried to glower at his girlfriend, but she just laughed while Hermione let out a giggle and Daphne agreed whole-heartedly. All the boys seemed confused as him, just throwing him shrugs before joining in the laughter.

There was picnic out on the lawn at lunchtime – the sun was shining despite it being nearly Christmas - and Harry sat between Ginny and Hermione, in a circle with all of his friends, including Cedric, Aaron, Nolan, Estelle and Holly, who fit right into their mismatched group.

Together they talked about anything and everything; Hogwarts, Beauxbatons - and the differences and similarities between the two – quidditch, books, animals, even politics (which is always quite a dangerous topic).

When lunch was over, attention turned to the silver cube that Harry had tucked into his robes after he had taken it off the podium.

Upon further inspection, he saw that it was not a solid cube, it turned like the Rubik’s cube he had seen his cousin play with (for about ten minutes before he broke it) a few years previously and it seemed that the squiggly marks lined up to form runes.

He handed it to Hermione, who had learned to solve a Rubik’s cube many years before (out of severe boredom) who lined up the runes before passing it back.

Taking a deep breath, Harry let his magic flow through the symbols one at a time until white light peaked out of the gaps between the faces and the top face came off completely, revealing a space within that everyone peered into only to sit back in confusion when it was empty.

“There must be a clue in their somewhere.” Harry remarked, casting a few spells to try and get the cube to reveal its secrets. When he didn’t get anywhere, he handed it to Hermione, who was looking puzzled and exited, in the hopes that she had thought of something that he hadn’t.

Soon it was just Harry, Hermione and Draco huddled around the cube while everyone else chatted comfortably. Remus and Severus looked like they were itching to help, but they couldn’t because they were his teachers and no-one else thought that they had anything to add, so they just left the trio to it.

An hour later, the three gave up, deciding that they had twelve weeks to figure the clue out and prepare for the task, so they could have one afternoon off. The group spilt up, Remus, Severus and Hermione going to find the library while Neville and Nolan made their way to the greenhouses and Luna and Holly made their way to visit the animals.

Everyone else made for the quidditch pitch to play against the Durmstrang students; Ginny, Sirius and Draco all playing chaser, Harry playing seeker, Cedric and Aaron playing beaters and Ron (who had managed to keep his masculinity intact while meeting Viktor Krum) playing keeper while Daphne and Estelle cheered from the side-lines.

For saying that only two of them had ever played a proper game together, the group did pretty well, eventually managing to snatch a win, 360 to 350 when Harry caught the snitch milliseconds before Krum four hours and twenty-two minutes into the game.

Once the after-game drinks had been consumed, everyone gathered (Harry had to go and find the three who had lost themselves in the library) and began the goodbyes.

“I’ll see you at Christmas.” Harry promised as he hugged everyone goodbye, saving a special kiss for Ginny at the end before waving as they were whisked away, sighing happily at how amazing his afternoon had been.

The first Task was over - amazingly he had come first - he spent the day with his friends and family, and he would see them again in less than three weeks; he would be going back to Hogwarts in less than three weeks.

With a grin of his face that he just couldn’t get rid of, even if he wanted to - which he didn’t - he absently scratched Elpis’ head and wandered through the school to find Cedric and go to dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Harry’s doing well isn’t he?!  
> Fleur is staring to thaw a bit and Harry’s had a nice day with his friends, isn’t that cute?
> 
> In case you were wondering, the lorikeets are from The Croods. I know, a weird place to get a magical animal from but there you go.  
> Oh, and I made up the Spitting Salamanders, that was fun.
> 
> Next week! An in-betweeny chapter; everything that happens between now and the Yule Ball. Just to add that Harry doesn’t know that the Yule Ball is a thing yet – he’s going to find that out tomorrow (tomorrow in the story timeline) which will be - interesting :)
> 
> Also, this is a quick reminder of who knows about Elpis: The Great Eight, Severus, Remus, Sirius, Dumbledore, Minnie, all the Weasleys, Seamus, Dean and Augusta Longbottom. Not everyone knows about her! And it’s only these people that know he can talk to snakes too.
> 
> Welp, hope you enjoyed!


	14. Love in every stranger [P4]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The time inbetween the first Task and Christmas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are again! Another week, another chapter.  
> Speaking of weeks, I was having a bit mixed up between week and weak during this chapter, so if you see one that’s wrong, please let me know!  
> Other than that, I don’t have much to say, so enjoy :)

The morning after the first Task, Professor McGonagall gathered all the Hogwarts students in the common room for an announcement.

“Thank you all for gathering.” Harry bit back a laugh – no-one would dare disobey the stern witch, she was respected and liked, but she was also somewhat feared - “I need to make an announcement about our plans over the Christmas holidays. Some of you will know about the Yule Ball, and for those of you who don’t, I will explain now.”

Harry tensed slightly – a ball? This couldn’t be good.

“It is traditional that the school hosting the Triwizard Tournament also hosts the Yule Ball on Christmas evening. There is more traditional dancing, of course, but we will also allow you to – let your hair down, as it were.”

She made an expression that Harry would have found hilarious if he weren’t trying to think of a way of getting out of this ridiculous ball. It wasn’t that he thought it shouldn’t happen – it was tradition and in different circumstances he might have even enjoyed it – but instead of his closest friends, he would be surrounded by relative strangers.

Shaking his head, he tried to absorb what Professor McGonagall was saying.

“Although that in no way means that you will be allowed to slander the name of Hogwarts. You are representatives of your school and I will not have you drag its name through the mud.” She glared down at them sharply for a few seconds before continuing, “Each of you will be required to attend and as such, we will stay for the first week of the holidays and go home on Boxing day.”

Harry couldn’t help pouting, his Christmas plans were ruined because of this ball – he wouldn’t get to see any of his friends and family or go home for an extra week! He almost missed what his Professor said next.

“You may well wish to take dates to the Yule Ball. It is not a requirement, but I encourage you to take someone from another school as a show of inter-house partnership. No-one below fourth year will be allowed to attend unless they have an older date, so keep that in mind. It is encouraged that you do not invite someone who is not here, but if you have a girlfriend or boyfriend back of Hogwarts who you really want to invite…”

Here, she glanced at Harry, who’s heart leapt at the idea of being able to spin his gorgeous girlfriend around on a dancefloor; it really wouldn’t be so bad if she were there.

“…Then that will be allowed and arranged as long as you inform us within the week. You will expected to dress in formal attire for the Ball, so if you have some at home then please get it sent and if you do not then there will be an opportunity to go to the nearby magical village where you will be able to purchase something in two weeks. Dance lessons will be available this evening if anyone is interested.”

She swept a glance around the room, then quired her eyebrow.

“I would suggest that everyone ensures that you have coordinated your outfit with your partners; if you don’t then it may well end in disaster.”

There were a few sniggers around the room, but Harry was no longer listening, he was daydreaming about him and Ginny at the ball together. He frowned when he realised how disappointed Draco and Hermione would be when they found out that they had missed out on such an opportunity.

Wondering if there was a way to get his two friends invited so they wouldn’t miss the special opportunity to spend Christmas together in such a unique way, he began to wander off with everyone else when he noticed that Professor McGonagall was trying to get his attention.

With an apologetic look, he made his way over to where she and Cassius Warrington were standing, next to the fire which was throwing a cosy warmth around the room.

“Ah Mr Potter.” She began with a look that gave him a sneaky suspicion he wasn’t going to like what she was about to say, “I just needed to let you know that, as Champions, both of you will be required to sit with the other Champions and Heads for the meal as well as open the dancing with your partners.”

She cut across Harry’s protests with a genuine apology, “I’m sorry Mr Potter, but it’s part of the Tournament. We are not sure of the exact nature of you bonding to the Goblet of Fire, it might well see this as a Task and rid you of your magic if you do not join in.”

Harry gulped, stopping his protests as he felt anxiety rise in him.

“For you, the dancing lessons will be mandatory.” Professor McGonagall informed them, “Mr Warrington, I would encourage your partner to also join us in these, if they do not already know how to dance. Mr Potter, I’m sure that Mr Black would be happy to show Miss Weasley what will be expected of her, but I suggest that the two of you practise at least one before the ball.”

Nodding, Harry pushed aside the feeling of jealousy that he wouldn’t be able to learn with his girlfriend, instead replacing it with delight that he would be spending Christmas day with her.

Just as he was zoning out again, he heard Professor McGonagall ask, “Any questions?”

Cassius merely shook his head and made his excuses, leaving Harry to push down his anxiety and force out his question.

“Is there any chance of Draco and Hermione being able to come?”

The older witch frowned, “Sorry Harry, but I doubt it. This is exclusive to the three schools and the French Minister; you would have to get any other guests accepted by Madam Mafalda and they would have to have a good reason for being allowed.”

Harry puckered his eyebrows in thought for a moment before an idea flashed across his brain and he grinned.

“Do you think that being a direct descendant of a past Headmaster would count for something?”

“Being an heir of one of the Founders gets you special privileges at Hogwarts,” She pondered it for a moment before allowing an impressed smirk, “So that might just be a route you can go down, but you won’t know until you’ve asked.”

Grinning, Harry gave a cheeky bow before darting out of the room towards his bed, casting some privacy charms and pulling out his mirror.

“Padfoot!” he called, waiting a little impatiently for the messy hair to appear.

“Hey, Pup! Everything alright?”

“Yep, I just have a quick question for you.”

“Shoot.”

“Would you be willing to buy Ginny a dress for Christmas? Or cover some of the cost at least. I’m about to ask her to the Yule Ball and I want to get her some jewellery – I know she won’t let me buy her both. Anyway, I want her to pick a dress that she loves, not that she feels comfortable with the price tag of.”

“If you’re talking about dresses then Narcissa will have to involved - actually, I didn’t know what to get Ginny for Christmas, so this is probably a good idea – me and Cissa’ll work something out between us.”

“Perfect! Hermione might need a new dress too, if I can wrangle it, but you can’t tell anyone about that yet.”

Sirius mimed zipping his lips then offered a cheerful wave before turning off the mirror.

Nearly bouncing in excitement, Harry called his girlfriend’s Animagus name and watched as Ginny’s chocolate eyes appeared in the mirror.

“Hey Gin, are you alone?”

“I’m in the common room, why?”

“Can you go somewhere more private? I need to ask you something.”

Ginny’s eyes seemed to light up with curiosity as she nodded and they made the short journey to her dormitory, which was empty. She settled herself of her bed, then turned expectantly to the image of Harry in her hands.

“So?” she raised her eyebrows questioningly.

“I need to talk to you about our holiday plans. I wanted to come home for the full two weeks, but it turns out I have to stay until Boxing day because there is a ball on Christmas day – the Yule Ball – which I have to stay for because of my ‘Champion Status’.” he rolled his eyes a little at the title.

Ginny couldn’t help her pout; she was looking forward to spending at least some of the Christmas holidays with her boyfriend.

“But,” Harry had a mischievous tone and Ginny smiled, knowing that her boyfriend was planning something, “I need a date for the Ball, so, Ginevra Molly Weasley, would you do me the honour of spending Christmas day at Beauxbatons and attending the Yule Ball with me?”

Unable to stop the happy squeal that erupted from her, Ginny nodded passionately.

“I would love to, Harry! That would be perfect, thank you!”

“Amazing! I’ll send you the details a bit later on, but there are only two more things to decide.”

“Oh? What two things?”

“Well, first is what colour do we wear? I haven’t got any dress robes yet and I’m assuming that you’ll be wanted to buy a new dress, so what colour would you like?”

Ginny mumbled something and turned a little red.

Pretty sure he knew where this was going, Harry called out softly, “Hey Gin, I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable. I had a quick chat to Sirius, and he didn’t know what to give you for Christmas, so he said that he will gift a dress of your choosing to you as an early Christmas gift.”

If anything, an even brighter red bloomed across her cheeks as she mumbled her thanks.

“Gin, I just want you to get something that you love. I don’t mind what you wear, I think you’re beautiful, but I want you to be happy – I want you to feel beautiful.”

“Aw, I really do have the perfect boyfriend.” She cooed, “I really don’t know where to get a dress like that from though.”

“Ah, good job I have connections.” Harry replied with mock seriousness and Ginny burst out laughing, “Narcissa loves a good shop and I’m sure that she’d love to take you – and your mother if you want – to get a dress. You might even have someone else with you if I can get it sorted out.”

Ginny looked at him curiously, but Harry waved her questions away, “That’s the second thing we need to talk about so, answer about the colour first please.”

After a moment’s thought, she nodded decisively, “Emerald green – match it to your eyes.”

Harry smirked, “How did I know that you would say that?”

“Hey! It’s one of the few colours that actually works with my hair!”

“And it looks gorgeous on you.” Harry smoothed, “And accents? Gold or silver?”

“How do you know what you’re talking about?”

“What do you mean?”

“Most boys don’t know anything about jewellery or clothes.”

“Slightly stereotypical, but I’ll let you off as it’s pretty accurate.” Harry laughed, “Sirius taught me the importance of jewellery gifts and matching colours.”

“Wait back up, jewellery gifts?”

“Yes Ginny, it is customary for the man to give the women jewellery at events like this.”

“But Harry! You can’t get me a dress and jewellery!”

“I’m not. Sirius is giving you a dress and I am giving you a Christmas present that you can wear to the Yule Ball. Necklace and earrings, so if you want any bracelets then you will need to sort that. So, I ask again, gold or silver?”

Ginny huffed a little in an effort to cover up her blush which was growing again, but answered, “Gold, thank you. We don’t want to go to Slytherin now, do we?”

Harry let out a laugh, “Gold it is. Now to my final bit of news. Usually no outside guests are allowed to the Yule Ball but I’m trying to get Draco and Hermione in under the pretence that Draco is a direct descendant of a past Headmaster of Beauxbatons.”

Letting out another small squeal, Ginny grinned, “That would be perfect, they would love that!”

“Yes, I think they would, but promise me that you won’t tell either of them? I’m not sure if it’s possible and I don’t want to get their hopes up, plus I want to tell only Draco so that it can be a surprise when he asks her.”

“Aw, that’s so cute. Of course I won’t tell them!”

“Great! So, I need to go and find Madam Mafalda, I’ll talk to you later, yeah?”

“Yes, later.”

She blew a kiss before deactivating the mirror and laying back on bed with a blissful sigh, thinking about how perfect her Christmas day was going to be. It would be the first time she wasn’t at the Burrow for Christmas; but she couldn’t bring herself to care very much in that moment – she would be with Harry, and that thought warmed her to her core.

Little did she know that Harry was thinking the exact same thing, hundreds of miles away, as he pulled on some smart grey robes rather than the muggle clothes or casual robes he usually wore at the weekend.

Cedric came into the room whistling, but he stopped still when he saw Harry grinning like a lunatic as he tried to put his robes on backwards.

“Urm, Harry? Try putting your arm in the other hole.”

The younger teenager looked down and frowned for a moment, before shrugging and letting the grin conquer his face once more.

“Everything alright there Harry?” he couldn’t help but laugh at his obviously deliriously happy friend. Whatever it was that had him like this (if he had to guess, he would say a certain red head) he felt that it deserved, Harry always seemed to have so much to deal with.

“Yep, everything’s amazing! Ginny’s come here for Christmas!”

Ah, so he was right, even down to the specific person - Ginny.

“That’s great Harry, it’ll definitely make up for not having a Hogwarts Christmas! I don’t know who I’m going to ask yet.”

“We can talk about your options if you like? But later if you don’t mind – I have something I need to do.”

“That sounds good, maybe over lunch.” The older teenager nodded then tilted his head quizzically, “What do you need to do?”

Harry grinned and rushed out of the room, calling back over his shoulder as he went, “I’ll let you know when it works!”

Cedric just shook his head with a smile of relief that Harry, who had been forced to grow up so quickly for this Tournament (or earlier, if his suspicions about Harry’s years before Hogwwarts were correct) could actually still act his age.

Harry made his way from the Entrance Hall - where he had just got instructions about how to find Madam Mafalda’s office, from the statues – through the door to the left of the Ballroom, two rights and a left until he reached an archway with a pair of columns flanking it.

These columns were made of the same sandy tuffeau limestone that the Head statues had told him the whole school was made of, having been mined and transported from the Loire Valley, and held two mood dragons sculptors wrapped around them and painted a dazzling gold.

This pair of dragons were a little bigger than the real species, so that their bodies and wings could reach out and twine around each other, stopping anyone from moving past them and through the archway without permission.

“ _Good Sir, Miss_.” Harry bowed to them, despite them not being alive (or no more so than a talking portrait) as he thought that they deserved respect as the familiars of the two founders of Beauxbatons – not that he wouldn’t have been respectful anyway.

“ _My name is Heir Harry Potter_.” (Sirius had made it clear how important properly announcing himself was, even if he felt arrogant for it) “ _If at all convenient, I would like have a conversation with Madam Mafalda_.”

Both heads turned towards him and their tongues flickered slightly, as if they were testing him in some way.

“ _Madam Mafalda will see you now, she is most curious about you._ ” they hissed in unison as they untwined and allowed Harry to walk through, not noticing that he or they had been actual speaking parseltongue.

Moving down the marble-floored passageway until he came face to face with a door that looked like a perfect replicate of the Ballroom door, albeit single rather than double and only a fraction of the size, he knocked, waited until he heard a calm but commanding voice allowing him entering and pushed it open.

Taking a sweeping look around the room, Harry tried to take it in with a single glance so that he wouldn’t appear rude for not greeting the Headmistress.

The office was made up of two circles which overlapped slightly, making the two rooms separate but connected by a large opening.

Harry was clearly standing in the office area; it had a large, solid, dark wood desk with the Beauxbatons crest carved on the front and a large leather chair on the far side with a few smaller, hardback chairs on the near side.

The wall was lined with a curved bookcase, matching the dark wood desk and completely crammed with books - most of them old, but a few newer. There were no trinkets as there were in Dumbledore’s office besides a small picture frame (which Harry could not properly see) and a small collection of crystals on the desk in a variety of colours and a beautifully carved stone pensive tucked into a corner.

Bellow his feet, the floor was limestone flagged in a circular pattern and the ceiling - which was quite high – was domed slightly and intricately painted with the Beauxbatons crest.

The enjoining room had the same floor - except it was mostly covered by a thick black and gold marbled rug - and the walls were the same limestone but had been painted with fines swirls of gold that toned into the sandy stone perfectly.

All over the wall were paintings, although Harry didn’t have time to tell if they were moving or not, each of which held a past Head, with their mood dragons wrapped around their shoulders.

This second room was clearly a formal sitting room, with a tall floo-capable fireplace, a collection of squat but comfortable looking armchairs in dark wood with pale blue upholstery and a matching low table.

To Harry, it looked quite welcoming, despite how obviously formal it was.

Looking back to the room he was stood in; Harry took in the woman who was rising and moving around from behind the desk.

Madam Mafalda was wearing the same midnight blue colour that she had been when he had first met her, but the cut of the robes was slightly different, while still similar in many ways. Her hair was mostly free, trailing down her back, but the very front was swept out of her face with a silver clip.

On the Headmistresses shoulder (despite their being a perch just behind her) sat Iridiana who was, for the moment, a pure gold that seemed to flicker in the candlelight.

“Madam Mafalda, thank you for seeing me.” Harry greeted her with a bow and a kiss to the back of the hand.

He wasn’t very tall, only just five feet (much to his displeasure) but he had to bow down quite far as Madam Mafalda was about a foot shorter than him.

“Heir Potter, I have to admit, I am intrigued as to what you want to discuss with me today.”

Harry gave a small chuckle, “If you do mind me saying, Madam, you do seem to have a thirst for knowledge. It is likely you would have been a Ravenclaw had you got to Hogwarts – although not certain; my sister, Hermione, has the same thirst, but she is a Gryffindor through and through. I know never to get on the wrong side of her as he hexes are almost as good as my girlfriends. They are both very strong young women.”

Madam Mafalda raised an eyebrow, although it wasn’t a disapproving one, “I wasn’t aware that you had a sister, Heir Potter.”

“We are not birth siblings, Hermione is the Sister to House Potter, but we do have a very close sibling relationship.”

Seeing that the lady before him had no more to add, he turned to the tiny dragon perched on her shoulder, _“Iridiana, a pleasure to meet you again.”_ He greeted her, instinctively switching to parseltongue without even realising it and not expecting to be able to understand the reply.

_“Heir Potter, I have to say, this is a rare occasion.”_

Harry was shocked as a faint rose blush appeared on her scales, “I wasn’t aware that Mood Dragons spoke English.” He commented to Madam Mafalda, who raised an amused eyebrow.

“They don’t.”

Tilting his head to the side in confusion, Harry glanced from Madam Mafalda to Iridiana, then back again.

“She speaks parseltongue.” The short lady expanded, letting out a soft chuckle at Harry’s gaping look of shock.

“I-I didn’t know that dragons spoke parseltongue, I thought it was only snakes.” He said weakly.

“Ah yes. Well, the type of dragon that you’re thinking of, Hungarian Horntails and such, speak a variation that normal parselmouths don’t understand, but some of these dragons bred with snakes many years ago and formed the smaller dragon species that you now know, such as Mood Dragons, who can speak both the Old Language and Snake Language.”

Harry was intrigued and excited by this, but also terrified – an almost complete stranger knew that he was a parselmouth!

Clearly his panic wasn’t very well veiled as Madam Mafalda tutted at him softly, “Britain and its prejudices. Here in France, being a parselmouth is celebrated; you can talk to a beautiful creature – that is amazing and should be treasured!”

Relaxing slightly, Harry let out a sigh and spoke softly, “Magic Britain is a very frightened place, they don’t want the terror of another war, so they hide from anything that possibly considered dark or was connected to a bad person.”

“Would they turn on the very person who they consider to be their saviour?”

Harry looked up from spot on the floor he had been staring at and locked eyes with the Headmistress, “Yes.”

Nodding pensively, Madam Mafalda lead them over to the sitting area, motioning for him to sit, before sitting herself and calling an elf for tea.

As she poured it, she told him, “If it’s any consolation, I won’t tell anyone, although you must be aware that it will probably come out eventually.”

“Yes, and I have a backup plan for when it does, but I would rather control it if I can, so I thank you for your silence.” After a moment pause and a sip of tea, Harry said, “You didn’t seem surprised that I am a parselmouth.”

It wasn’t phrased as a question, but they both knew that it was.

“Yes, I already knew.”

At his questioning eyebrow, she expanded, “My first clue was when you greeted us, you made a crooning hiss that was clearly unintentional but not fully formed. I was intrigued but decided not to press it.”

She paused until Harry prompted her, “And the second clue?”

“Well, it was less of a clue and more of undeniable proof. You spoke to Evangeline and Asher, my door guards, in parseltongue.”

Harry only just stopped himself from spitting out his tea in shock; he thought that he had got hang of knowing when he was speaking in parseltongue or English, but clearly not.

“You also greeted Iridiana in parseltongue.” She added, clearly amused when Harry let out an audible groan.

“I really need to learn not to do that – I thought that I had, but clearly not.”

“You speak parseltongue often?”

Harry nodded and let out a small sigh.

“You’ve a familiar? I can see it in your magic – quite a strong connection.”

Again, he nodded, “One moment.” Then he switched to parseltongue, “ _Iridiana,_ _do you mind another familiar being here?”_

_“By all means, I look forward to being introduced.”_

With a short bow, Harry sent a summons through the bond until he felt a weight in his pocket.

 ** _Come on out, Elpis._** He thought, **_there’s someone I want you to meet._**

The iridescent snake slithered slowly and wrapped herself around his arm, surveying the two in front of her.

“Elpis, this is Madam Tyra Mafalda, the Headmistress of Beauxbatons and her familiar, Iridiana. Madam Mafalda, Iridiana, meet my familiar, Elpis.”

Elpis and Iridiana moved towards each other, flicking their tongues in greeting as the others watched them, Madam Mafalda’s lack of movement the only tell of her shock.

“She’s beautiful. An Alysisian?”

“Yes, we bonded on my thirteenth birthday.”

“I guess that she is your assurance that Britain will not call you ‘dark’ when you are discovered to be a parseltongue?”

“If I have a light creature, there is no argument for me being dark, parselmouth or not.”

“Quite. So, you have a familiar, which is fairly rare, you bonded at age thirteen, which is rarer still, you bonded to an Alysisian, which are the least common magical animal with only one ever being alive at once and you have enough respect to ask Iridiana if she was alright with Elpis joining us.”

“Could you understand when I asked her that?” Harry asked, wondering if he was the only parselmouth in the room.

“No, she told me through our link.”

“Ah, I wasn’t sure if all familiar bondings had a mental link that like.” He nodded then sighed, answering the unasked question “That’s about the size of it yes.”

“Why do you not sound happy about that?”

“It’s always me.” Harry stated and the Headmistress laughed, “I love Elpis, but it’s always me.”

Giving a sympathetic nod and a final glance towards the two familiars, who were hissing happily, Madam Mafalda changed the subject.

“Back to the subject at hand, I suppose there was a reason you asked to see me?”

Harry brought himself back to the present with a shake.

“Yes, I actually had to favours to ask of you.”

“Two?” he raised her eyebrows.

“Yes.”

Seeing that he wasn’t backing down, she motioned for him to continue.

“First, I would like to ask that Miss Rita Skeeter not be allowed back on the grounds.”

“And your reasoning for this?”

“She is different from most reporters, she reports purely to cause chaos, spread fear and make people look bad.”

“People being you?”

“You think I’m being selfish.”

It wasn’t a question, so she didn’t give an answer, simply raising her eyebrows as if to challenge him to prove her otherwise.

“I don’t care what she says about me – although I would prefer that what she did say was actually true – however she writes articles about those close to me, and there is nothing that I want more than to protect those who I love. I want her to respect my private life, not spread gossip about person relationships, or make comments about my choice of father or slander something that a close friend’s father has spent his life building.” He kept his voice even as he spoke, following a random spiral on the wall with his eyes.

“You’re famous. Famous people get gossip written about them.” She seemed to say it just to see how he would react.

“That is true, but everyone else had a choice about being famous, I did not. Every person who puts themselves in the public eye makes that decision, but I didn’t. I went from being nothing, dirt, to be a famous saviour literally overnight. That’s a lot of an eleven-year-old to get his head around. Not only did I find out that I was a wizard I found out, on the same day, that I was famous for surviving when my parents hadn’t.”

He took a deep breath, he was aware that he was trusting a lot of information to someone who he barely knew, but it felt right.

“You don’t know that you were a wizard until you were eleven?”

“I lived with my muggle aunt and uncle, they don’t like magic and hoped that by ignoring it, it wouldn’t happen.”

“They were wrong.”

“They were. And I paid for it.”

Madam Mafalda considered the teenager opposite her for a moment, watching him loose himself in memories as his familiar draped herself comfortingly around his neck. Clearly, the Harry Potter that the media painted didn’t cover everything, not that she really expected it to.

“I will tell Miss skeeter that she will not be permitted to come to the next Task.”

Harry ripped himself from his memories and nodded thankfully, “That is much appreciated.”

“Call it compensation, albeit small, for being entered into this Tournament against your wishes.”

His laughter was a little bitter, but his thanks were genuine.

“Now, I believe that there was a second thing you wish to discuss?”

“Yes, it’s about the Yule Ball.”

“Oh?”

“I wanted to know if there was any chance of me being able to invite an additional guest?”

“I’m sorry, but it’s a closed event, invitation only.”

“And what are the requirements for getting an invitation?”

Madam Mafalda raised her eyebrows, “By being a student at Beauxbatons, a visiting student or one of their dates.”

“So, being a student who is living at Hogwarts, not here, wouldn’t qualify?”

“They wouldn’t, no.”

“One final question.”

“Go ahead.”

“Do you have any special allowances for being a direct descendant of one of the past Headmasters?”

“Historically, they do have invitation to any social events, yes, but no-one has asked about it for years. Who is this person?”

“Draco Black.”

“We haven’t had a Black Head; he cannot be a direct descendant.”

“He can if he used to be a Malfoy and changed his name.”

Madam Mafalda’s face closed off immediately, “Malfoy’s are not allowed to step foot in this school.”

“My I ask why?”

“How about I have Headmaster Henri Malfoy answer that?”

She turned to a painting on the wall which showed a scowling man who was an exact replica of the gold bust in the Entrance Hall with the Malfoy features of blonde hair, silver eyes and pale skin.

“Sir.” Harry gave a bow, “I have tried to talk to you, but I assume you didn’t want to and so feigned sleep.”

“This is true, Heir Potter.” He voice was soft, but the tone harsh, “I am not one for conversation, but this is a matter that I care about deeply.”

“Might you explain so that I can understand, Sir?”

“The Malfoy name has been disgraced. Talk of pure blood and following madmen! Malfoy’s do not bow to those below them; show respect – of course! Everyone deserves respect, but not bow.”

“I assume you speak of Tom Riddle?”

“Tom Riddle?”

“The real name of Voldemort.”

Both adults looked at him, not in fear, but in surprise that he would say the name when most from Britain would not.

He gave a small shrug, “Fear of the name increases fear of the thing itself. Especially as that’s not even his real name.”

“This is true. Giving him his fashioned name puts him on a pedestal, especially if you add the ‘lord’ to it.” Madam Mafalda agreed while Headmaster Malfoy nodded.

“It does. But back to the subject at hand, if you don’t mind, Sir?”

After a nod of consent, Harry continued, “You notice that I said that Draco Malfoy changed his name to Draco Black? The Lord of the Black family, who happens to be my Godfather, was locked up without a trial for betraying my parents, but he was innocent and released two years ago.”

“We are familiar with the story of Sirius Black.”

“It seems that the whole Wizarding World is. While he was wrongfully imprisoned, there was no Lord Black, which proved to be a problem for one Narcissa Black, who married the latest Lord Malfoy, Lucius, and had a son, Draco Malfoy. Narcissa wanted to spilt from her husband after she found that her husband wanted to drag his son down the same path that he had been dragged down – into the service of Riddle - but couldn’t because there was no Head of her House.”

Harry looked up to see thoughtful expressions on both faces before continuing.

“Soon after Sirius came back, Narcissa and Draco asked for Sirius to break up the marriage, asking only for the dowry back, instead of ruining him like they had the power to. What I’m trying to say, is that the Malfoy line will end, because there is no heir, and Draco is now Heir Black. It’s a new age for the Malfoys, a better age.”

There was a moments silence before Headmaster Malfoy spoke up, “How are you so sure that young Draco is different from his father?”

“A few reasons. First, he was the one who came forward to ask for the split. Second, he is now my close friend and I do not associate with people who have that prejudiced view on blood. And third, he is in a relationship with my sister, who is a muggleborn.”

“How can she be your sister if she is a muggleborn?”

“Technically, she is not my birth sister, but a Sister to House Potter.”

“Then he is in a relationship with a half-blood, which is not quite the same thing.”

“It’s not, but she was a muggleborn when their relationship began, it was only after that I offered her the protection of House Potter.”

Headmaster Malfoy considered him for a moment before giving a short nod, “He is a true Malfoy. I extend an invitation to him and his girlfriend for the Yule Ball.”

Clearly, he had been listening to the whole conversation, not sleeping as it had seemed.

“Thank you.” Harry gave a bow.

“But I wish to speak to him when he arrives.”

“Of course, that is only fair.”

With a final nod and bow, Headmaster Malfoy went back to ‘sleep’ and Harry turned to Madam Mafalda.

“Will there be formal invitations sent out?”

“There will.”

“If it’s not too much trouble, please can you have both sent to Draco Black? I wish for this to be a surprise for my sister.”

Madam Mafalda let a smile flit across her face, “Of course. There are sleeping arrangements being made for those who are traveling, as it will too late for them to go home, I will add Heir Black and Sister Potter to those numbers.”

“That is much appreciated, thank you.”

“My pleasure. If you are agreeable, I think that I would quite enjoy doing this again, you’re a fascinating young man. How about afternoon tea in a week’s time?”

“That sounds wonderful, thank you.”

With final goodbyes to both Madam Mafalda and Iridiana, Harry left the office, elated and made his way to the stables, finding Jewel and leaning against her side with Jasmine as he pulled out his mirror.

With a call of “Darrius!” Draco appeared, a small smile on his face.

“Good morning, Harry, is everything alright?”

“It’s great! Are you alone?”

Draco looked at him quizzically, but shook his head, “I’m in the library with Hermione and Daphne.”

“Can you go somewhere more private?”

“Urm, I suppose, give me a minute.”

There was a murmured conversation and the sound of movement before Draco’s face appeared again.

“I’m in a disused classroom with a silencing charm, now what is the matter?”

“You know about the Yule Ball?”

“Of course. And even if I didn’t Ginny mentioned that you had asked her, not that we thought any different.”

“Well, what would you say if I told you that I got you an invitation for you and a plus one?”

“To the Yule Ball? I would say you were pulling a prank on me.”

“Well I’m not, and I have.”

“You’ve got me an invitation to the Yule Ball? But how?! It’s a great privilege to attention and well known for not allowing outside visitors.”

“Before I say anything, promise me that you’ll let me finish before you get all annoyed?”

“What did you do?!”

“Promise me?”

“Fine. Now what?”

“You know how I said that there was a Headmaster Malfoy?”

“You didn’t?”

Draco was too smart for his own good, working out what he done like that.

“Oi, what did you promise?”

“Sorry.” He grumbled, “But you know I’m not a Malfoy anymore.”

“Actually, it turns out that Henri Malfoy hates what happened to the latest Malfoys as much as you do. He says that the Malfoy name has been disgraced and that you are a true Malfoy.”

“You talked to him?”

“A portrait in the Headmistresses office.”

“You went to the Headmistresses office?”

“Yes.”

Draco rolled his eyes, “So, what you’re saying is that my ancestors are ashamed of my father’s and grandfather’s actions as much as I am, so they have invited me to the Yule Ball?”

“Effectively, yes.”

“Woah, not what I was expecting. So, why couldn’t Hermione be there when you told me this, especially as she’s coming too?”

“I thought it that you could make asking her into a romantic surprise. Ginny knows that I was trying to get you invited, so you can get her help if you like. You, Hermione and Ginny will portkey over early Christmas morning then come home with us on Boxing day.”

“It is the ultimate romantic date.”

“Yep. Oh, and Narcissa is going to help them with their outfits.”

Draco laughed, “Of course she is.”

“And I’m getting a necklace and earrings for Gin, so if you want to do the same with Mione, that might be cute.”

“I’ll have a look around.”

“Awesome. The official invitations are coming to you, they should arrive tomorrow.”

“Great. This is truly amazing, thank you Harry.”

It didn’t sound like much, but Draco wasn’t big on showing lots of emotion, so he might as well have been sobbing and Harry knew it was genuine.

“No problem, just make sure she has a good time, yeah?”

Draco wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Harry just groaned before shutting off the mirror with a wave of his wand and allowing a grin to grace his lips – these plans were really coming together.

* * *

The two weeks left before the Christmas Holidays were quite relaxing for Harry. He spent them with his friends from all the schools and Professor McGonagall, who was helping him to progress quickly with his studies.

None of the Champions seemed to have got very far with their cubes, but they all seemed to have decided that they were waiting until after Christmas to begin any serious thought about it.

The only uncomfortable situations came from the large numbers of people – girls and boys alike, which Harry wasn’t sure what to think about – asking him to the Yule Ball, hoping to go with a Champion (and the-boy-who-lived). He just about managed to stay polite, apologising to each before telling them that he was going with his girlfriend.

Some were respectful of that, but more than one left him in hysterical tears, which made him feel awful, however fake he knew those tears were. Despite the knowledge of him having a date spreading, the number of people asking to accompany him did not go down and he took to avoiding strangers as much as possible.

His friends all had dates; Cedric had come running up a week after the announcement of the Yule Ball, saying that he had asked Fleur Delacour and that she had said yes. Fleur had thawed slightly since the first Task, and Cedric had had a few conversations with her over the week, despite how stiff she still with Harry.

“We decided to go as friends, to try and stop people drooling over her as much.”

Harry laughed a little humourlessly, “I bet that getting drooled over gets old quickly.”

“I would say so, yes. And she doesn’t want a romantic relationship at the moment - which I am okay with, I don’t think that she’s the right person for me away – because she’s coming into her inheritance in a few months and she’ll have to start finding her mate then.”

“She’s going to have a Veela inheritance? I didn’t think that happened with people who were only a quarter Veela.”

“On their eighteenth birthday. She’s not going to become a full Veela, just develop more control over the allure and get wings. Oh, and she’ll be able to form fire balls.”

Harry spluttered a little, “Just a normal day as a part Veela I guess.”

Krum had asked his boyfriend from Durmstrang, who was portkeying in specially, Cassius had asked a seventh year Beauxbatons student, who he had apparently bonded with briefly over their shared love of architecture, Aaron asked Estelle, which was no surprise as they were already dating, and Nolan asked Holly, which was also not a complete surprise, as Estelle had been trying to get them together for a year apparently.

On the day first day of the Christmas Holidays, practically everyone who was staying at Beauxbatons over the holidays (which was most student above fourth year and anyone younger who had a date) piled into a fleet of pale blue coaches, pulled by Pegasi.

Harry, Cedric and their four Beauxbatons friends climbed into the coach pulled by Jewel (after Harry had greeted her, of course) and talked quietly as she took off and they flew through the sky; over trees, a river and a line of hills that separated them from their destination.

They were headed to the nearest village, which was the magical village of Pierremagi and, from what Harry had heard, Beauxbatons equivalent of Hogsmeade. Students were allowed to visit the first Saturday of every month, plus the first Saturday of the Christmas holidays (for much needed last-minute Christmas shopping).

Despite the fact Harry had been in France for over two months, this was the first time he had gone. The November trip overlapped with the Weighing of the Wands, so he was unable to attend, and the December trip had been cancelled because it overlapped with the first Task, so everything was very new to him.

All that he knew, he had heard from Madam Mafalda when he saw her for afternoon tea nearly a week previously. Apparently, the name Pierremagi had been changed over the years from Pierremagique which translated to Magic Stone, as it was made from the same tuffeau limestone that Beauxbatons was made from, because it was an amazing conductor of magic and easy to construct and hold wards around.

Peering out of the window, Harry saw a small village rushing towards them, flanked on one side by hills (which they were flying over) and the other side by sparkling sea. The village itself was small and quaint looking, made up of small sandy coloured cottages and decorated with bows of green leaves.

Harry saw that there was a cobbled path leading into the village which their friends led them down after the coach had landed on a stretch of grass with a number of others.

As they walked, a few flakes of snow danced towards them from the sky, delicate and perfectly formed, despite their tiny size, and completely unique. The first few were joined by a flurry of others, who landed in their hair and reddened their noses, making them glad of their hooded cloaks.

The Beauxbatons students had floor length pale blue cloaks, that had a creamy coloured fur on the inside and the school crest in gold on the back. When the weather had turned, Professor McGonagall ordered cloaks in a similar style of the Hogwarts students. They were black, with maroon on the inside and the Hogwarts crest in silver on the back - Harry was grateful for the hood as his ears had begun to get cold.

Pulling the hood around his face, he followed behind his friends and looked around in wonder as they entered Pierremagi. The cobbled high street was lined with small shops that were definitely bigger on the inside and had warm wood doors and windows which were hung with living bows of green and dried lavender, perfuming the air with a glorious scent.

Everything was beginning to get a thin layering of snow which added to the magic as they darted in and out of shops which were clustered with students and locals alike. Harry practised his French - which he was picking up pretty quickly – as he wandered around and gathered all of his Christmas presents.

There were shops for books, trinkets, stationary and the arts, an apothecary, a wand shop (apparently where most people from Beauxbatons got their wands) and a post office. Throughout the morning, Harry gathered presents for everyone except Ginny. He found something for his friends back home, his family, his new French friends and he even found a rainbow crystal for Madam Mafalda to add to her collection.

They ate lunch in one of the small cafes that was down a side street and clearly a place that Aaron, Estelle, Nolan and Holly came regularly as they were greeted enthusiastically and served immediately by the cheery owner.

After eating, the sextet headed down another street that ran parallel to the high street. This one seemed to be centred around attire, with separate shops for men and women’s clothing (magical and muggle), trunks, shoes and accessories.

Everyone needed an outfit for the ball, but they also knew that Estelle and Holly would take a lot longer than the other four, so they left the girls to it for a little while and made their way down to the sea.

Harry was transfixed by the sparkling sea and how it seemed to absorb the still gently falling snow. The sheltered bay curved around in a stretch of white sand which became a pair of rocky headlands far to each side with a thin gap between where the sea seemed to go on forever, glistening in the weak sun.

They spent a little while staring out to the sea, chatting comfortably to one another before making their way back to the clothing shops, finding the section for men’s formal wear and picking out robes that fit with the colours they had been told by their dates.

Half an hour later, they had their purchases packed up and Cedric (Nolan and Aaron didn’t want to see what their dates were wearing) went to go and check how long the two girls would be.

The answer came back as another half an hour, so the boys began to wander until they came across a jewellery shop.

Harry just knew that the perfect gift for his girlfriend would be in there, so he entered and began to browse, finding what he wanted pretty quickly.

By the time another half an hour had passed, Harry had exited the shop, tucking a jewellery box into his pocket and grinning broadly.

As they flew away from Pierremagi, Harry sighed happily. It was Christmas in eight days, and he was really looking forward to it – it was just going to be perfect!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that is the longest chapter I have ever written. Normally I write 3000-4000 words, but this was nearly 8000, so it’s basically a double chapter, I just didn’t want to split it.  
> If you’re interested; I think that Harry is still a little too trusting, he has a habit of latching onto anyone who is nice to him, simply because he’s still not quite used to anyone liking him at all, so he’s a little naive to manipulation. That may or may not bite him in the butt in a little while, *cough cough* foreshadowing.  
> Anyway! I had lots of fun writing his conversation with Madam Mafalda and the descriptions of the office and the village, so I hope you enjoyed reading them!  
> Until next time,  
>  Esther.


	15. Ease the anger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas Day!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are again!  
> Christmas day is upon us and I feel like we should just get to it, don’t you?  
> Enjoy :)

Harry awoke early on Christmas morning and mirror called Severus, who was also a morning person (at least, once he had drunk his coffee). They talked for a while, wishing each other Happy Christmas and finalising their plans for the rest of the holiday, which involved the pair of them staying at Grimmauld Place with Narcissa and Draco.

After a while, he got up and went to breakfast, which was a jolly affair where everyone seemed to be half asleep but buzzing with anticipation at the same.

When breakfast was over, Harry called around his other friends, the Weasleys, Neville, Luna, Daphne, Remus and finally Sirius, who was definitely not a morning person and would not have appreciated being called before eight in the morning, Christmas day or not.

Soon, it was time for him to meet his friends, so he left the carriage and walked around to the front of the school, thick snow crunching beneath his feet.

It had been gently snowing pretty much none stop since the first flakes a week ago and that it had built up to about ten centimetres in that time, never really disappearing. Harry guessed that there was probably a stasis charm of some kind on it, so that it would look beautiful for the Yule Ball that evening.

As he stepped out of the front door, Viktor Krum was stood, clearly waiting for someone. Harry wished him Happy Christmas, but before he could ask who he was waiting for, there was a swirl of magic and colour and a tall young man, who looked to be about Viktor’s age, with broad shoulders, dark hair and a light stubble around his jaw appeared before them.

His face broke into a smile as he landed and saw Viktor, who was also giving out a rare smile.

They moved towards each other and Harry only had time to notice that this newcomer seemed to have a limp in his left leg before they began to kiss, and Harry looked away, embarrassed, not wanting to intrude on their private moment.

After a few moments, they broken apart and Viktor led the stranger over to Harry.

“Harry, this is my boyfriend, Ivo Yelk, he is here to accompany me to the Yule Ball.” Viktor smiled then turned to Ivo, “Moya Lyubov, this is Heir Harry Potter.”

The dark-haired man gave a short bow, “Mr Potter.” His accent was thick, and it was clear that he didn’t know much English, “It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise, and please, call me Harry.” He bowed in return before turning to Viktor and asking curiously, “If you don’t mind me asking, how come Mr Yelk didn’t enter the Tournament?”

“If you notice, moya lyubov has an injury, he killed some of the nerves in his leg when he was young, and that is something that magic cannot fix. He is not as good on his feet, so he could not enter.” Viktor explained.

Turning to his partner, he spoke in quick Bulgarian before addressing Harry again, “Also, he asked that you call him Ivo.”

Harry nodded and the two of them bid him goodbye before venturing into the warmth (not that they were cold in their bulky fur cloaks) of the school.

Less than a minute later, the swirl of magic came again, but this time bigger as four people materialised.

Immediately, a streak of red rushed towards him and he held out his arms ready for his exuberant girlfriend to wrap himself around him. They stayed there for a few moments, Harry rocking them gently as he spoke softly in her ear about how much he had missed her.

“Happy Christmas, Ginny.” He whispered, smelling the scent of jasmine in her hair, “I have a feeling that it’s going to be a good one.”

Ginny purred in agreement, still glued around him and growling slightly when he tried to put her down.

“Come on, Gin.” He laughed softly, “We can have some time together, just us, later.”

With that promise, Ginny slide quietly to the floor before planting a quick kiss on his lips and stepping to the side so he could greet everyone else.

He stared at her for a few seconds, taking in her sparkling chocolate eyes and her casually stunning outfit of high-waisted dark-wash skinny jeans, timberland boots and a snug fitting leather jacket.

Her smirk told him that he been staring for a little longer than was normal, so he ripped himself away and moved forward to greet the others.

Moving towards Hermione, who was dressed in one of her usual comfortable sweaters and jeans, he pulled her into a hug, wishing her Happy Christmas as he did so and watching as her face lit up.

He did a double take when he saw Draco properly; he had changed his hair, which had been known as his pride and joy (but mostly pride) in the past.

No longer was it slicked back against his head with excessive amount of gel, it was instead shorter all round, with the sides cropped closer to his skull and the top a little longer, swept neatly to the side (although using a lot less gel than before).

Harry though it suited him, made him look more sophisticated but more personable, like he had finally stepped away from his childhood as a Malfoy.

“Black.” He regarded the other boy with a bow, as was their custom, only bursting out in laughter after the sneer of “Potter.” Came back.

“Nice hair. It suits you.”

Draco raised a surprised but appreciative eyebrow and gave a short bow of thanks after checking that he was being serious and not making fun of him.

Only a little hurt that his friend thought he would lie about something like that, Harry turned to the final and most unexpected guest with a bow, “Professor Dumbledore.”

When he thought about it, it did make sense that Dumbledore was there - he was still the Headmaster of the third school of the Tournament, even if he wasn’t staying in France all year - but it was still unexpected.

“Harry.” The old wizard greeted joyfully, and Harry winced slightly at the familiarity, “Merry Christmas!”

“You too, Sir.” He responded quickly then stopped, not knowing what else to say.

Dumbledore seemed to sense this discomfort and tried to make himself scarce.

“If you’ll excuse me, I have some last-minute planning for the Yule Ball tonight, so I must go and find Madam Mafalda. Enjoy your day.”

“You too, Sir.” Harry repeated, watching the wizened wizard walk away before turning to his friends, who were looking at him with slightly questioning looks, which he ignored, instead choosing to enjoy his Christmas day.

“Come on!” his eyes gleamed mischievously, “I got quite a surprise this morning when I woke up with four piles of presents. But I’m sure that you’ll help me open them? Maybe I’ll even share some with you.”

Draco snorted while Hermione laughed, and Ginny narrowed her eyes in mock rage.

“If you think you will get away with stealing our presents, Mr, then you’ve got another thing coming!”

“Well,” he stepped forwards so that he was just in front of his girlfriend, “Let it be noted that I am not stupid enough to go against Lady Ginny Weasley, wielder of the Bat-bogey Hex.”

Ginny’s eyes had a steely glint to them as she moved forwards until their noses were almost touching, “Too right.” Then she smirked and planted a kiss on his lips.

When they stepped apart, Draco was rolling his eyes good-naturedly and Hermione seemed to be trying to hold back a laugh and a coo at the same time.

“Right then, presents it is! Lead the way, Harry!”

Their joy-filled voices faded into the distance as Dumbledore lent against a wall nearby, looking every day of one hundred and thirteen years old as regret lined his face. Two years and he could still see the slight mistrust that Harry held around him, not that it wasn’t founded – why would you trust someone who had left you to be abused for twelve years without a second thought or a check up?

No one blamed Albus Dumbledore for it more than he himself did.

But it couldn’t go on; he could continue to blame himself, of course, he would until beyond his dying day, but the trust had to be mended. Voldemort was close to finding a way back, he could feel it, and he couldn’t be defeated if Harry didn’t trust him.

The two couples found their way to Minerva’s office, where she was waiting for them, four of her favourite students (of she had them, so did all the professors, but they were sensible enough to keep them to themselves).

Someone who was essentially her family, someone who was willing to stand up against their father for what was right, someone who had a healthy thirst for knowledge and a fierce protector Weasley – there was always a reason for a student to manage to worm their way into her soft spot, and these four had managed it.

Her heart practically burst as she saw the look of pure happiness of Harry’s face.

If she looked very closely, she could see the slight shadow that still haunted him and her heart yearned for him to be rid of it, but this was good enough – for now.

No-one minded being in the presence of a professor, they were more used than most to spending time with them outside of lesson than most, seeing how Harry spent all year at Hogwarts.

The five settled around the fire for their presents, which (in the case of Draco, Hermione and Ginny) had been sent ahead from Hogwarts so that they could open them together in France.

Slowly, the piles lessoned as various items appeared from under the wrapping paper. They each got a Weasley jumper - purple for Ginny, mustard for Hermione, silver for Minerva (who put it on happily) Slytherin green for Draco (who didn’t look too uncomfortable, so Harry thought that he must have finally fallen for Mrs Weasley’s charms) and navy for Harry, who already had one in emerald green, scarlet and maroon.

They each got photo albums from Luna - full of pictures from the summer camp and tailored to each person - various books, other articles of clothing and quidditch gear.

Ginny got a pale-yellow t-shirt with the words ‘I pranked the Weasley Twins and lived to regret it’ in grey on the front from the twins. She slapped Harry lightly on the arm, laughing as she did so.

“I can’t believe you told them about that!”

Harry chuckled while the other three looked confused.

“When we were at Hogsmeade, I said we should prank the twins and she said that was a bad idea and joked that she had the t-shirt to prove it. I felt that the joke should become reality, so I mentioned it to the twins who clearly appreciated it.” He explained with another laugh.

“Clearly.” Minerva chuckled as she performed a quick switching spell to replace the plain white t-shirt Ginny was wearing with the new one, electing an exaggerated groan from the teenager.

Harry opened the label on his final present to find that it was a joint gift from Severus, Sirius and Ginny, which was an interesting combination to say the least – he didn’t think that Severus and Sirius were close enough to be going halvsies (or thirdsies?) or presents.

Confused, he ripped the paper off and frozen in shock as the present beneath his fingers morphed into a distinctly recognisable shape.

It was a guitar case; firm black leather with a silver signature near the bottom, ‘Maestro’s’ - the magical music shop in Hogsmeade that Harry had spent a far amount of time staring through the window of.

“It will only open with your magic, push it through onto the clasp.” Ginny advised softly.

Still in a state of shock, Harry placed his finger on the silver clasp and pushed his magic through it until it clicked open, revealing an emerald green crushed velvet lining that housed a beautifully made walnut-wood guitar.

The front of the guitar body was exquisitely painted with a perfect replica of Elpis, from the iridescent blue scales to the unblinking black eyes.

Reverently, Harry lifted it from the case and held it, noticing the natural patterns in the wood that decorated the back and the slight details of how it stat in his hands as he absently strummed the strings, watching the snake twist itself around the sound hole and sway slowly to the music, tongue flicking although no sound came out.

It was then he noticed a pocket in the lining of the guitar case. He opened it carefully to reveal a selection of music books, of varying difficulties and styles as well as a single sheet of parchment.

Curious, he lifted it out to find that it was the music for his and Ginny’s song – their song over song. He looked at Ginny in wonder and delight while she smiled at him, the shyest he had seen her since they had first met.

“You remembered what I said.” His voice was full of emotion while Ginny looked at him earnestly.

“Of course I did. I could see it meant a lot to you.” She replied softly, “I talked to Professor Snape about it a few weeks ago and he helped me sort it, we got it customised and everything, Sirius found the music books and I managed to get hold of the music for our song…”

She was cut off and Harry pulled her into a hug, his eyes glistening slightly.

“Thank you.” He whispered, knowing that words would never be enough, but feeling that he had to say something anyway.

“You’re welcome.” Came back the reply; he could almost hear her smile and they stayed like that for a few minutes before quickly pulling Hermione in to join them. Hermione then sent Draco puppy dog eyes until he rolled his eyes and came over, wrapping his arms around them for a few moments, not noticing the few tears glistening in his Professor’s eyes at the sight.

“Well, that’s it.” Harry announced after a good few minutes, still beaming from his amazing present.

“Do I have to wait for my present from you?” Ginny asked, but Harry just smirked.

“Yes.”

Ginny pouted a little and Hermione raised a questioning eyebrow to Draco, who nodded, indicating that she would get his present later also.

With a final smirk, Harry changed the subject.

“We have a few hours until lunch, I propose a tour.”

“Excellent idea, Harry. I must go and find Albus, so I’ll leave you to it. Don’t have too much fun.” Her eyes twinkled and Harry sent an exaggerated wink her way, laughing as she walked from the room.

Carefully, Harry put the guitar back in its case, making a mental note to mirror call Severus later.

Ginny explained how he could shrink the case to the size of a matchbox by pushing his magic into the signature at the bottom, which he did before carrying all of his presents to his trunk and locking them in.

He desperately wanted to try out his guitar ( _his_ guitar?!) but he knew now wasn’t the time; he could wait until the next day, just about.

Harry gave the grand tour; the Pegasi stables, the library (although they purposefully didn’t linger, it was too tempting), the kitchens (the French house-elves were just as friendly as the British ones) and a few other secret spots he had found. They even ran into and had a quick conversation with Professor Bernard, the Defence professor who had helped Harry out for the first Task.

Eventually, they found their way back to the Entrance Hall and Harry walked over to the bust of Henri Malfoy who was, as usual, pretending to be fast asleep.

“Headmaster Malfoy.” He called softly, “I brought someone to meet you.”

As Draco stepped forwards, the bust seemed to awake and lock his eyes onto his great something grandson.

“Headmaster Malfoy, I would like you to meet Heir Draco Black. Draco, Headmaster Henri Malfoy.”

The old Headmaster raised an eyebrow, “I my day, we were always introduced to family members with full names.”

Harry was about to explain, but Draco stepped in smoothly, “Harry does know that, he chose not to because he thought I still had my ex-father’s name as my middle name, but I changed it about a week ago and wanted to wait until I saw him to tell him. My name used to be Draconius Lucius Malfoy, but now it is Draconius Severus Black. I go by Draco.”

Shocked, Harry asked, “Does he know?”

“I assume you mean Sev? Yes, he and Mother were there when we sent of the paperwork.”

His friend had changed so much in the year that they had properly known each other. He had new hair, a new name and a new outlook on life, not to mention a girlfriend who was perfect for him, new (better) friends and a new family.

“Who is this Severus?”

“Severus Snape, a good friend of my Mother’s, my godfather, and Harry’s adoptive father.”

“Hm.” The bust grunted, before his face cleared and he became more open.

Harry, seeing that this conversation would be better between less people, turned to Hermione.

“Ginny and I will leave you too it. We’ll meet you back here for lunch in an hour, you haven’t seen the ballroom properly yet.”

Hermione gave her brother a nod of conformation, before turning back to her boyfriend and the bust of his ancestor.

“This is my girlfriend, Hermione Granger.”

“Ah yes, Harry’s sister, he mentioned you. It’s a pleasure to meet you, young lady.”

“You too, Headmaster Malfoy.” Hermione nodded respectfully.

The bust reverted his attention to his grandson, “So, Draco, I hear that you are not overly fond of your family.”

“It depends what you define as family, Sir. I was never fond of my father, or grandfather for that matter; they sided with Riddle and, ironically, all either of them wanted was an heir. My mother however, I love dearly, and I am growing to love my extended family too. One of my aunts is a cytopathy and has recently been disowned but the other is very much like my mother, although she got disowned for marrying a muggleborn.”

“Disowned from the family Black for marrying a muggleborn? But that’s ridiculous.”

“It’s what a lot of the old families do now, Sir. They are breeding themselves into extinction but are too stuck in their prejudices to stop it.”

“Harrumph. This aunt of yours, she’s back in the family now, yes?”

“She is, Sir. The current Lord Black, Sirius, who is Harry’s godfather, welcomed Andromeda, her husband Ted Tonks and her daughter Nymphadora Tonks back into the family at the same time as he annulled my mother’s marriage and disowned my other aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange, from the family for being a Death Eater, that is what they call Riddle’s followers.”

“That is something at least. How did the disgraced Lucius take it?”

“There’s been a little backlash for him, but he mostly kept my mother for social occasions, so the ministry hasn’t noticed to much. A few of Mother’s friends took his side, but she say’s that they are the ones who sided with Riddle in the first war, so they weren’t much of a loss. Besides, she has her sister back now and she says that’s a win. I’ve no doubt that Lucius will seek revenge at some point, but she has some blackmail material on him, so he can’t do much yet; and when he does, we will be ready – we are Blacks, we look after our own.”

“Very Black.” Headmaster Malfoy agreed, “Both through your expectation of revenge and your protection of your own. I am glad to see that the Black family doesn’t seem to have slipped as far as the Malfoy family has.”

“It was only after Sirius took over that it was brought back from the dark side, he has brought the family back to its former glory and is using his power in the Wizengamot effectively.”

“All the better.” The bust studied Draco carefully, “You shall be my heir.”

Draco was confused, “But, I’m not a Malfoy anymore?”

“No, I wish for the Malfoy name to die out, I doubt that it will recover from this, but know that you are the true Malfoy, not your father, even if you are the Black Heir now. You will always be welcomed here, and you can call me Grandfather.”

With a bow and a smile, Draco thanked his Grandfather, “That means a lot to me, Grandfather.”

Meanwhile, Harry led Ginny to an unused classroom and flicked his wand to move all the tables and chairs to the side.

To her curious glance, he answered, “Professor McGonagall suggested that we should have at least one practise at the dance before we have to do it for real.”

“Ah that’s sensible.”

He gave his wand another flick to start the music and put his wand away before nervously wiping the sweat from his hand. Cedric – who had society lessons not unlike the ones Draco had been doing for them growing up – had given him a few tips beyond what Minerva had taught him, but that didn’t mean he was any more confident.

Ginny giggled and curtseyed as Harry pressed a kiss to the back of her hand, took a deep breath and led her onto the ‘dance floor’, where they moved slowly and steadily to the music, managing to not stand on each other’s feet once despite being distracted by staring deep into each other’s eyes.

He even managed to led Ginny in a twirl, which made her hair whip around and hit her in the face, electing another giggle. Harry smiled, this was much easier than he was expecting, it felt natural - although he was sure that it would be a lot harder with lots of people staring at them.

“Thank you.” He spoke softly.

Ginny looked up and their eyes locked, “For what?”

“Everything, but mostly being here and for the guitar.”

“Harry, I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

The song came to its end and they finished with another curtsey and bow respectively before looking deep into each other’s eyes again.

Stepping together, their lips met and melded together perfectly as their pulses quickened and the wrapped their arms around each other.

The next half hour was spent with a bit more dancing, and a lot more kissing.

They met with Hermione and Draco outside the Ballroom, then went in for lunch, greeting Viktor, Ivo, Nolan, Aaron, Holly and Estelle then finding a seat with Cedric.

The Ballroom wasn’t overly decorated (Harry suspected they were saving that for later) but there were Christmas Crackers and decorations on every table. Unlike a normal lunch - where people dibbed in and out - everyone was there, sitting down together and the noise was higher than usual as people celebrated.

It was an overall enjoyed affair, with lots of laughter and bangs as crackers exploded, and Harry was completely content as he held hands with Ginny and smiled around at his friends.

Once lunch was over, a snowball fight was proposed; the nine Hogwarts and Durmstrang students against Viktor, Ivo and a number of the other Durmstrang students, most of whom Harry recognised from playing Quidditch with.

It was a bit of a savage game, with everyone ending up soaking wet and with no clear winner when the girls left to get ready (Ginny and Hermione were getting ready with Holly and Estelle) at five. The boys continued for a bit, not really understanding why it took three hours to get ready, but knowing better than to ask, less they be on the wrong end of a glare or hex.

Finally, the boys went to get ready, Harry pulling on black dress trousers and shoes, with a white dress shirt and robes over the top which were black with emerald green on the insides with a matching tie.

Cedric and Draco wore the same shirt, shoes and trousers, but Draco wore completely silver robes and tie that matched his eyes and Cedric wore dark turquoise which he seemed to pull off pretty effortlessly despite how bold they were.

They styled their hair, Draco spending a long time making it perfect while Cedric just made sure it was neat and Harry gave up before he even started instead choosing to cast the spell that Ollivander had taught him, a few months before to make random streaks of his hair match his tie perfectly, in a tasteful (he hoped) way – if it really didn’t work, he knew that he could put it back to normal quite easily.

Thinking of Ginny, Harry tucked the jewellery box into his robes and took one last look in the mirror, trying to convince himself that he would have a good time, before Draco dragged him off to meet their dates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ops, sorry that I had to turn this into a double-parter. I though some things were too rushed and I know that several people wanted the conversation between Headmaster Malfoy and Draco, so it was really too long.  
> The next chapter is the actual Yule Ball, so that should be fun. There’s a lot of description because I like to picture what people are wearing! Also, I like writing description :)
> 
> Some people might not like the whole guitar thing (also, I know nothing about guitars, so sorry if I get stuff wrong) but I always liked the idea of Harry learning an art, whether that be painting or carving or singing/playing an instrument and the guitar worked the best with that I had written so far. It’s not going to be important to the story, just a random cute thing.
> 
> Anyway, until next time!  
> Hope you enjoyed :)


	16. Ease the anger [P2]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Yule Ball.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are!  
> One of these days, I won’t leave it until the last minute to upload… that day is not today though.  
> This is the longest year and it’s only halfway done – ops. I think it will move a bit more quickly from here though. I have a new year’s chapter (plus the rest of the holidays) then we move onto the second task.  
> ANYWAY, here’s the Yule Ball!  
> Enjoy :)

Waiting outside the Ballroom for Ginny was the most nerve-racking thing Harry had ever had to experience – and that was saying something considering his track record over the past four years.

There were lots of people milling around - all wearing different colours and styles which Draco wouldn’t stop commenting on as if he were the fashion police – and chatting to each other, perfectly relaxed, so why was he freaking out?

Cedric jabbed him in the ribs, and he turned around, ready to snap, when he caught sight of Ginny who was wearing the most beautiful dress he had ever seen.

It was emerald green, the perfect match to his own robes, and just touched the ground so that he only just saw the toes of her high heeled (as if she weren’t already tall enough?) gold shoes when she stepped forwards. It had a V-neck that went down to the centre of her chest and became two-inch-thick straps at her shoulders. Fitted until her waist, it was held in by a very fine belt that was the same colour as the dress and then flowed down from there into an A-line skirt, which moved gracefully around her as she walked.

Her fiery hair was gathered at the back of her head in an elongated bun that was decorated with a few tiny gold stars and dripping tendrils that framed her face perfectly. On her wrist, he could see two bracelets, one that seemed to be a thin plait of yellow gold, rose gold and silver and one that was more like a bangle: gold with small hearts and stars along its length.

As she moved closer, he saw that her face was carefully made up with a light amount of eyeshadow in shades of gold and green that framed her chocolate eyes and sparkled in the light. Her eyelashes seemed darker than normal, more noticeable, and her cheeks had a little more colour to them, but less freckles than normal.

He walked towards her, kissing her hand with a sweeping bow and a flourish.

“Lady Ginny.”

Leaning forwards, he planted a kiss on her cheek and whispered in her ear, “You look so beautiful.”

The words weren’t much, but he could see her eyes dance with happiness as he stepped back so she clearly understood that he was underexaggerating a vast amount.

“And you look most dashing.” She giggled, before leaning in, planting a kiss on his cheek then whispering in his ear, “I love what you’ve done with your hair.”

Harry checked to see if she was joking or being serious before answering, “I can change it back if you want, it’s just a spell.”

Ginny shook her head with a laugh, “No, no, I was actually wondering if you could do it to mine?”

“I was hoping you would say that. Quidam Viridis Capillus.”

The colour grew front her roots down, just thin streaks of colour that didn’t dominate but added subtle tone that seemed to make the tiny stars twinkle ever more brightly.

Quickly transfiguring a mirror, he held it out to her and stared into her eyes patiently as she examined herself.

“Perfect.” She announced after a moment with a grin.

“I’m glad you like it, but ready for some withering looks from Professor McGonagall, she hasn’t seen it yet.” He said as he pulled the jewellery box from his robes.

“Hmm, I suppose we can’t avoid her all night.” Ginny joked and Harry laughed.

“My afraid not, my love, you cannot escape Professor McGonagall.” He paused, then handed her the box to open, “As promised, you Christmas present.”

Watching her face, Harry saw the look of excitement turn to a look of shock turn to a look of pure joy as she opened it.

“Oh, Harry! They’re beautiful!”

She was staring down into the box, but Harry gently took it off her so that she could put them on. He was sure that Draco would get annoyed that he didn’t put them on her himself, but he knew his girlfriend well enough to know that she would hate that – they both knew that she didn’t need help putting on a simple necklace and earrings.

They were a matching set; the necklace, an emerald stone, cut in a heart shape and set in an outer heart of tiny gold stones, the chain gold and the earrings the same, only smaller.

When she had put them on, he held the mirror out for her again and she admired the jewellery for a few seconds before leaning across and pulling him into a kiss.

“Thank you.” She said simply, her eyes telling him just how much she loved them.

He smiled, offering her an arm and turning them around, before coming to a stop when he saw Hermione allowing Draco to put a necklace on her – she looked amazing!

Not many people associated Hermione with beauty, it just wasn’t what she was known for, but she had an understated elegance about her that seemed to have made an appearance especially for tonight.

She wore a silver dress that matched Draco’s robes perfectly, with a V-neck that, like Ginny’s, went down to the centre of her chest, but that veered off and ended in an off the shoulder style. These straps each had a strip of gauze silver fabric falling from them, ending just an inch or so off the ground and flowing around her as she moved.

The dress itself had silvery leaves embroidered onto it all the way from the bodice, which was snug fitting, to the skirt, which had a little poof and structure to it so that it swished when she walked, her silver closed-toe shoes just peeping out.

Her hair was tamed for once and was pulled into a bun at the base of her neck, one side of her head forming a French braid then fed into it. There was a delicate silver leaf clip at the top of the bun and a few tendrils of brown hair framed her face, giving it a soft look.

Draco was in the middle of giving her to her Christmas present, a match set of double bracelet, earrings and necklace, all silver, and all depicting delicate daisy flowers, whether that be singular – as in the case of the bracelet and earrings – or a chain, like the necklace.

Harry and Ginny gave the other couple a minute before greeting them, looking around at what other people were wearing.

Fleur had made an entrance and was wearing a floor length dress with a halter style bodice of silver and a layered flowing skirt of turquoise, making Cedric’s interesting choice of colour more reasonable as he gifted her a pair of dangling diamond earrings. Her hair was half pulled back into a fishtail braid while the rest hung free and neat in a sheet down her back.

Aaron was there, dressing in pale blue robes with Estelle on his arm, wearing a low V-neck dress that had white flower details at the top and faded into matching pale blue further, her hair in loose waves.

Next to them were Nolan, who was wearing black robes with gold stars, and Holly who was wearing a long beige dress with a sweetheart neckline that had an overlay of light gauze that went all the way down her arms and up her neck and was patterned with large gold stars.

In another part of the room were Viktor Krum and his date. All of the Durmstrang students were wearing the same outfits; the boys with dashing blood red robes and a brown fur cloaking hanging from one shoulder, while the girls wore the same colour in a dress (although the style and cut were different for each person) and a brown fur sash.

Viktor himself was the only exception as his cloak was a pure black fur, clearly marking him as the Champion among the Durmstrang students.

The final couple Harry was interested in was Cassius and Eloise. Cassius was dressed in pale grey robes while Eloise wore a dress that was black at the top with an a-symmetric neckline and a high silver belt. From the belt, the black faded into shades of red, peach and purple, before transitioning into a grey that just touched the floor, flowing out slightly as it did so.

Harry hadn’t met Eloise before, just heard about her, so he studied her a bit more than he did the others. She had black hair, unlike most at Beauxbatons, which was shaved on the sides and cropped at the top, then twisted into curls that were coloured purple at the very front.

She seemed like personable, from the little he had seen of her, and was talking to Cassius quite happily as they waited to go in.

After a little while, Draco and Hermione made their way over and Harry kissed his sister on the cheek.

“You look amazing.” He told her, and a faint blush crept up her cheeks as she thanked him.

They didn’t get much time to talk before Professor McGonagall sought them out, predictably exasperated at their hair but not having the time to comment, or – secretly – the want to spoil their fun.

Draco and Hermione went to find their Beauxbatons friends - who had invited the pair to eat with them - while the four Champions and their dates gathered together to go in last, not that Harry really understood why – drama probably.

While they were waiting, Harry studied what the four Heads (or Deputy in the case of Minerva) were wearing. Professor Dumbledore seemed to have been forced to dial it down a little for the ball, as, instead of his usual eye-watering colours, he was wearing a tasteful silver robe that shimmered the whole rainbow when it caught the light.

Headmaster Karkaroff was wearing a variation of his students’ robes, but pure black with a blood red cloak decorating his left shoulder and a silver ceremonial sword hung at his side that had a large, shimmering black opal set into the hilt and smaller obsidian gems set around it. His goatee was trimmed to perfection as always, and he didn’t look quite as surly as he usually did.

Madam Mafalda wore an orchid coloured dress that fell away in pleats to her feet and was pinched with a wide strip of material at the waist. The sleaves were pleated also and were fitted up until the elbow, where they fell away in a bell shape and almost touched the floor. Her hair was up in a complex Celtic knot braid away from her face and she seemed to carry herself with an effortless grace, despite her small stature.

Minerva was wearing a simple black dress that crossed over at the front and fell to the floor cleanly, with a few ruffles at the shoulders. Over one shoulder and pinned at the waist was a tartan sash made up of her clan colours, teal and purple. The pin that held it together was a larger version of the pin that she wore daily and had once told Harry carried the symbol of her clan, the Dara Knot.

Her hair was not up in tight bun and tucked under a hat like normal, but instead folded into a neat plait at the back of her bare head, showing that it fell, quite impressively, right down to the middle of her back.

After a while, everyone had been ushered into the Ballroom, and the Champions were called to line by their Heads.

Cedric and Fleur led the procession, with Madam Mafalda and Professor Dumbledore right behind them. After that came Cassius and Eloise, then Harry and Ginny, Minerva and Karkaroff and, finally, Viktor and Ivo bringing up the rear.

They were serenaded in by a serene piece that Harry didn’t recognise that he couldn’t immediately find the source of from outside the ballroom as the doors were flung open dramatically. Multiple soft and melodious voices sung in harmony while a flute hummed gently in the background.

From his place behind four couples, Harry couldn’t see much until he was fully in the room, at which point, everything hit him at once.

The round tables were still in place and were filled with people, but there was a wide path down the centre of them to walk down which was lined with snow covered boughs that led to a long table at the front, clearly meant for the twelve of them, just in front of the Professor’s table.

Each table was laid out beautifully with shining silver plates trimmed with gold which held menus, written neatly in gold ink and embroidered silver serviettes that were stitched with little holly sprigs and folded into the shape of a Pegasus, as well as crystal glasses and goblin-forged silverware.

In the centre of each table of six was a mini ice sculpture of different magical animals - Pegasi, Wood Nymphs, Dryads, Naiads and Fauns – all delicately formed with intricate detail and careful precision that made them look as if they were made of pure diamond.

Light from the crystal chandeliers shone through the ice and diffracted, scattering rainbows in all directions, and wreaths of evergreen, interspaced with holly berries and gold roses, wound around the bases of the sculptors, filling the ballroom with a fresh pine scent.

Fairies fluttered around the domed ceiling and between the frost-covered trees that lined the edge of the ball, positioned between some bigger ice sculptures that Harry reckoned would have given Hagrid a run for his money, height wise.

Off to the side, by the grand door, was a small woodland scene; a frost covered bough as a seat, grass that seemed to have sprung up out of the floor and flowers that waved gently in a none existence breeze.

Sat, primly, on the bough was a trio of Wood Nymphs who had long, flowing hair the exact colour of molten honey that was caught up in a wild waterfall of lilies, leaves and fairies, and white material wrapped around them that seemed to both flow around them shapelessly and give them a very defined form, at the same time.

One of the trio swayed gently as she blew into a flute that warbled perfectly to what her two companions were singing as they closed their eyes and seemed to gain their voices from the very bough beneath them.

**“See me now, a ray of light in the moondance  
See me now, I cannot leave this place  
Hear me now, a strain of song in the forest  
Don't ask me, to follow where you lead.”**

Blown away by the gentle song and by the intricate decoration of the room, Harry didn’t have time to panic about what was happening until he saw his friends smiling at him from a table near the front. He gave them a small smile back, then let out a quite sigh, trying to calm himself down.

Ginny, who had her hand resting daintily on his arm, gave it reassuring squeeze and he felt the warmth that seemed to spread over his whole body, from where her hand was and outwards.

Slightly more relaxed, he took his place at the table between Minerva and Ginny and looked along the length of it in an effort to not look out at all the people staring at him, which was a fair few people.

There was no wreaths or ice sculptors, as there wasn’t room, but there was a garland in the same style that ran the length of the table, dripping stylistically off the edge and glittering in the light.

After checking to see if the roses were real (which they were, despite Harry not understanding where they got gold roses from), he looked around to see if anyone was watching him before wrapping his left hand gently around one of the roses and holding his right hand out, palm up.

He focused his magic, and a new rose began to form in his right hand, delicate petals and soft gold colour, until it was all knitted together in a perfect replica.

Letting go of the original flower, Harry focused on making the new one slightly smaller, before looking up at Ginny who had been watching him in curious fascination.

Giving her a loving smile, he reached up and tucked the flower into her hair, just above her ear, before placing a light sticking charm on it so that it wouldn’t fall out and planting a kiss on the back of her hand.

After she returned the smile, Harry turned to Minerva, who showed them how to order from their menus. Harry stayed safe with steak and ale pie (he had tried and enjoyed French food while he’d been there, he just didn’t want to risk it) while Ginny was slightly more adventurous with a dish that she definitely couldn’t pronounce.

The conversation flowed smoothly, sometimes just between the two of them and sometimes between others. At one point, Ginny had a conversation with Eloise, who was sat on her other side, about Wood Nymphs while Harry listened in interest and Cassius conversed quietly with Dumbledore.

When the main course was cleared, there was small gap in the conversation where Harry turned to Ginny and spoke to her in a low voice.

“Hey, guess what?”

Ginny raised a questioning eyebrow and Harry smiled softly at the fact she was there next to him, before continuing.

“I was looking through a book about heating charms a few days ago and I came across something that I want to try with you. Cedric helped me test it, so I know that it will work.”

He laced the fingers of his left hand through the fingers of her right so that their wrists, which held their matching bracelets, were touching, then pointed his wand at the small gold hearts that had their initials etched into them.

Speaking softly and quickly, he chanted, “Calor Onerariis, Calor Onerariis.” Drawing his wand in a complexed pattern between them and twisting it slightly, as though he were knitting threads together.

After a few seconds, he stopped and released her hand before holding the heart in his hand and pushing his magic through it, Ginny watching his curiously before letting out a small gasp.

“You feel that?” Harry grinned,

“My bracelet heated up; I could feel it on my wrist.”

“You try. It might be hard at first, you have to learn how to push your magic out of your hand, but I know you’ll get it.”

He was right, it took a lot of effort the first time even though she was only pushing a small amount of magic out, just because she wasn’t used to it, but Harry felt the heat after a few minutes.

Ginny grinned and pushed a small kiss onto his check, “That’s amazing Harry, will it work when I’m at Hogwarts?”

“It should do, but I don’t know for certain as I haven’t been able to test distance. We should try, but we’re going to have to wait until after the holidays because I’m coming back with you.”

“Yeah, the next time we mirror call we can try it.”

“I’m probably going to mirror call you from Grimmauld Place.” Harry pointed out and Ginny rolled her eyes good naturedly, tucking into her desert that had just appeared.

“The next time you mirror call me from France.”

Harry grinned and turned back to his own pudding, eating it left-handed as he held his girlfriend’s hand under the table.

Before long, everyone had finished eating so Madam Mafalda rose and motioned for everyone to do the same before flicking her wand. The tables in the middle of the room vanished while the ones around the edge grouped together and the long table at the front filled with drink; pumpkin juice, butterbeer, even fruity punch.

The music came to a stop and everyone moved to the sides, clearing enough space for six couples to dance comfortably.

Fleur and Cedric led the procession out to the dancefloor and Harry took a few deep breaths as he got into position, arms around Ginny, who was looking at him with bright eyes.

He tensed slightly as the music started up again - a waltz with a woodland-y feel to it, just as all of the Wood Nymphs’ music had – but Ginny made relaxing noises in her throat until he melted into the dance and forgot about everyone around them in favour of just staring into her eyes.

They breezed through the dance after that, smiling at each other in bliss and ignorance of their being people around them, so that, before they had felt it had really started, it was over and they were ending with a bow and curtsey respectively.

Harry blinked as everything around them whooshed over them like a wave when the music came to a stop. Nearly stumbling, but catching himself just in time with Ginny’s help, he led them in another dance as the music picked up a little and more people joined them.

After a few songs, Harry brought (dragged?) Ginny, Hermione and Draco over to meet Madam Mafalda, who had been dancing with Professor Dumbledore (who didn’t seem to mind the two-foot height difference) up till then.

While the others were talking, Dumbledore asked Harry if he could have a word and Harry cautiously agreed, nervous but curious about what his Headmaster could possibly want to talk about.

Dumbledore led them over to a secluded corner, where he waved his wand, blocking out some of the sound from outside and stopping anyone from being able to hear what they were saying. He then turned to Harry with an expression that was filled with sadness, regret and maybe a little self-loathing? Which made him begin to regret agreeing to the conversation.

“Is everything okay, Sir?” Harry asked, when the Headmaster didn’t say anything for a few seconds, so caught up with the older wizard that he didn’t notice a tiny acid green beetle slipping under his collar to hide.

After a few more seconds, Dumbledore gave a sigh and let his eyes drop.

“I wish it were. Harry, it’s been two years and I have never truly apologised for what you went through during the first twelve years of your life.”

Harry shifted uncomfortably, not wanting to have this conversation but seeing clearly in the old wizard’s eyes that he did.

“Sir, you don’t need to…” he broke off as Dumbledore lifted his hand with a sad shake of his head.

“Harry, I left you in abusive home for twelve years without a second thought. I have every reason to apologise and you have every right to hate me.”

“I don’t hate you, Sir.” Harry responded quickly.

“But you don’t trust me.” Again, Harry shifted uncomfortably, “Which is perfectly founded. I blame myself.”

“I don’t blame you, Sir.”

The Headmaster looked at him with a hint of curiosity and disbelief, “It is human nature to blame someone, so if not the logical choice of me, then who?”

“At first, myself - I didn’t understand that I wasn’t doing anything wrong, I must have been doing something wrong because why else would they have treated me like that? But I’ve begun to move on, I’ve come to realise that I didn’t do anything wrong and I didn’t deserve it, he would have abused me whatever I did. My aunt was so overwhelmed with jealousy, that she hated me for the same reason that Severus did at the beginning, for my parents.

“My cousin is a monster of my aunt and uncle’s making, in some ways he is as much a victim as I am. So, to answer your question, Sir, there are many people at fault. Yes, you are one of them, but you forget that you are not the only one who didn’t check on me. In fact, no-one did, so if I hated each one of those people, then I would have no parental figures or role models at all. Besides, we get nowhere by simply assigning blame.”

Dumbledore gazed at him for a few more seconds before replying, “That’s a very wise outlook of your situation.”

Bowing his read in recognition of the statement, Harry spoke, “Maybe, but I would remind you that I am no long in that situation, I am safe now. I will never forget, it made me who I am today, but I can forgive and move on, which is what I am doing, I have a new family now, a proper family, and I am happy.”

“You are saying that you have forgiven my actions, but cannot fully trust me because you will not forget?”

“I suppose that I was I am saying, yes.”

“Harry, I need you to be able to trust me, I think that Voldemort is in the near future, and I think that you will play a key role in his defeat. What can I do to get you to trust me?”

“I don’t see how I will play a role in his defeat, but he does seem to have something against me. I do trust your want and ability to get rid of Riddle, but - if you don’t mind me saying, Sir - you don’t know everything; proven by Pettigrew’s betrayal, Sirius’s innocence and the last four years of my school life. There’s no reason why you have to do everything yourself, and there’s no saying that you are always right, just because you’re the leader of the Order of the Phoenix or because you defeated Grindelwald. No-one is always right, and it takes more than one to make a wise decision.”

Harry ground to a halt and took a deep breath, nervous as to how this respected man would react to being told these things by a fourteen-year-old. To his surprise, Dumbledore’s eyes began to slowly twinkle.

“And that, is proof that anyone can learn something new.” He spoke quietly, half to himself, then locked eyes with Harry again who could see the determination in the old wizard, “You’re right, of course, as the younger generation so often are, I have no doubt that you and your friends will change the country, if not the world.”

Harry nodded, smiling at the thought what his friends could do, if they put their mind to it.

“I’m sure that they will, Sir. Do you mind if I go and join them now?”

“Of course, of course. Please, enjoy your evening, and thank you for humouring an old and lost man.” He waved his wand to bring down the wards and watched the teenager for a few minutes longer as he walked over to his friends and pulled them into a dance.

Staring out at the dancing couples, he lost himself in his thoughts for a few minutes, thinking about the past, present and future, and the weight of the country, and more, resting on his shoulders becoming just a little heavier as he did so.

There had to be a point where it got too much, he thought, and he could feel that it wasn’t very far away. Was he the right one to be leading? It was always said that the one’s best suited to power were the ones who didn’t go looking for it.

Meanwhile, Rita Skeeter was crawling out of her hiding spot and flitting away, filled with glee and anticipation at the story of the century.

The rest of the evening past in a blur of dancing and laughter. Harry danced with various people, from Hermione to Holly and Estelle and even Minerva and Madam Mafalda, always coming back to Ginny between and having the final dance with her at the end.

At the end of the night, Harry kissed her goodnight before saying goodbye to every else, leaving them to go up to bed.

In the end, only five people were staying overnight from other schools; Ivo, who was staying with the Durmstrang students, Dumbledore, who was given guest rooms to himself, Ginny and Hermione, who were given beds in Holly and Estelle’s room, and Draco, who had a bed in the carriage with Harry.

Cedric, Draco and Harry stumbled out of the castle to the carriage and fell into bed at one in the morning, exhausted but happy.

As he fell asleep, Harry thought about Ginny; how beautiful she looked in her dress, how her eyes shimmered when she was laughing or having fun, and how lucky he was to have her in his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a few things to say about this chapter.  
> First, the Wood Nymph song is part of ‘The Willow Maid’ by Erutan. It’s an interesting song, I recommend a listen just to see (or hear?) how I think a Wood Nymph would sound.  
> Second, I have quite a detailed mood board for the Yule Ball outfits, so if anyone is interested and wants to give me their email, I’m happy to send that one to you.  
> Third, does anyone else just want to squish Rita Skeeter?
> 
> Anyway, I had fun with this chapter. I’d like to know what people think of my Dumbledore arc, I don’t think I’ve seen this angle around much, if at all, so I’m curious as to what other people think – opinions would be appreciated!  
> I could literally write a whole chapter on describing outfits, but I kept it short :) you might not think it’s short, but believe me, it could have been a lot longer! I hope this chapter had a little more plot in that past chapters and a little less fluff (although there was still plenty in there).  
> Cheers to Skeeter being squished in the future!


	17. Ease the anger [P3]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of Rita Skeeter’s sneaky Yule Ball spying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise that there’s actual plot in this chapter.

Harry awoke on Boxing day in an even better mood – if it were possible – than he had the day before, albeit a little later than usual. He mediated for a little while before meeting Cedric for their early(ish) morning run, leaving Draco still fast asleep.

They were both a little tired, as it had been a late night, but there something about running that was like an invigorating splash of cold water to the face.

While they ran, they discussed their holiday plans. Cedric was going home, while Harry was going to Grimmauld Place with Severus, then they were both taking the train back to Hogwarts at the end of the holiday to spend some time with their friends and make the journey back to Beauxbatons.

After two laps, the pair mediated then showered, greeting the now awake Draco and making plans to go and grab some breakfast.

When they entered the Great Hall, the girls were already there, and the post was just arriving. Before Harry even had chance to sit down, an owl swooped in and dropped the Daily Prophet on his head, indifferent to his indignant squawk.

Pulling out his chair, Cedric turned to Harry to ask him a question when he saw his friend freeze, with a pure look of panic on his face before jolting into life, dropping the newspaper as if it burned him and bolting from the room.

Confused, he turned to Hermione and Ginny, who had snatched up the Prophet and begun to read the headline. They took one look, exchanged an enraged yet concerned glance and ran after Harry, shoving the paper towards Draco as they did so.

Peering over the younger teenager’s shoulder, Cedric read the headline for himself.

**_Harry Potter Suffers Abuse at Hands of Muggle Relatives_ **

His breath caught is his throat and he bit back a growl. So, his suspicions had been correct, and for the first time in his life, he wasn’t happy about it.

Wondering what to do, he looked up at Draco, who seemed quite composed apart from the furious glint in his eyes. He watched the boy glance at the teacher’s table and connect eyes with Professor McGonagall. There was subtle communication, then she got up and made her way of the of Ballroom.

Next, Draco pulled a mirror out of his pocket, a communication mirror, Cedric realised.

“Uncle Severus?” he asked, and a small face appeared.

“Draco. Can this wait? I’m in the middle of a rather volatile potion.”

“Not I cannot, this is about your son.” Draco snapped back, startling the scary professor, “Have you seen the Daily Prophet yet this morning?”

“I have not. Why, what drivel have they come up with this time?”

“It’s more factual that usual, you need to read it, they found out about the Dursley’s somehow and its flashed across the front page. Harry ran off, Professor McGonagall, Hermione and Ginny went after him.”

There was a snarl, but Draco cut it off.

“Stop, now’s not the time to lose your head. He’ll be okay, but I think that he’ll probably want to hide for as long as possible, this holiday might be hard.”

“Fine.” There was a sigh, “But when I find out how they got hold of it…”

“Join the back of the line.” Now it was Draco’s turn to snarl.

“Just bring him home as soon as you can. Don’t force him to talk, but don’t leave him by himself.”

With a nod, Draco turned off the mirror and tucked it back into his pocket before picking up the paper and reading the article.

Finally, Cedric found his voice. “You’re actually reading that?! Surely you already knew.”

Draco looked up, his piercing eyes locked with Cedric’s, “You should always know what your enemies are saying about you.” He looked back down at the paper, and shook it out, “Besides, it’s not like you aren’t planning on reading it.”

Cedric blushed slightly but before he could reply, Draco spoke again, still looking down at the article, “You don’t seem surprised. You knew?”

“I suspected.”

Draco looked up, “But he didn’t tell you.”

It wasn’t a question, but Cedric shook his head anyway.

After a while, Draco sighed and stood up, tossing the paper at Cedric.

“I’m leaving it to you to stop everyone from harassing him. The nosey dunderheads over there already have all seen the article and they seem to think that it’s their business.” Cedric looked over at the Hogwarts students in surprise, he didn’t think that Draco had been paying enough attention to see how they were acting.

Cedric looked back to Draco and was pinned by another piercing gaze, “If they do anything, I hold you responsible.”

He gulped a little, seeing the flames of anger still dancing in his eyes, “I won’t let them near him.”

With a final stiff , Draco left the room.

As he caught sight of the Headline, Harry’s heart stopped for just a moment, before it suddenly kick started again, sending him running, running, running away from everyone and everything.

Not really knowing where he was going, he ran, catapulting of walls and disturbing groups of people until he found himself in Minerva’s office. He curled up in a ball on the floor in the corner and rocked himself gently, eyes tight closed.

All that he could think about was that everyone knew, there was no hiding, they all knew, the whole of Britain and more by the end of the day, all knew how weak he was, that he couldn’t defend himself from an overweight muggle.

He hadn’t been lying to Dumbledore when he said that he didn’t blame anyone, but that didn’t mean he wanted everyone to know. There was a fine line between telling someone so that you could talk about it and having too many people know, and this crossed that line by more than a mile.

Ginny ran with Hermione hot on her heels. They followed the trail of carnage that led them to the carriage and rushed inside, gasping for breath. There they found a bemused looking pair of girls who took one look at them and pointed to the closed door of Professor McGonagall’s rooms.

Carefully, they pushed the door open and slid inside, quickly closing it behind them and surveying the room.

Their hearts clenching and blood boiling, and saw Harry, huddled and shaking in the corner, tears falling in torrents down his face as he rocked slightly. He didn’t seem to know that they were there; he was in his own head and they had to get him out.

Slowly, Hermione approached, wincing slightly as Harry seemed to sense someone closing in and began to murmur to himself, but pushing on anyway.

“Harry.” She whispered softly, putting a hand gently on his shoulder and rubbing slightly, “Harry, it’s Hermione. It’s okay, I’m here now, Harry.”

The murmuring stopped, but the rocking didn’t, so she began to wrap her arms around him, comforting but not restricting.

Ginny moved over then, curling up next to them and also wrapping her arms around Harry, whispering comfort in his ear and not even noticing when the door opened again.

Hermione looked up and locked eyes with Minerva, who made her way silently over and lowering herself to the floor, with no complaint other than a small “umph”, and pulling the trio into her arms, rocking them all gently.

Harry knew that there was someone there, but he didn’t know who, he knew that it was someone comforting, that he knew well, but he couldn’t put a name or face to it. He heard a voice tell him that everything was okay and felt arms around him, then he heard a second voice and felt a second pair of arms.

Scents began to come to him; slightly bitter lavender and honey sweet jasmine – he knew these scents, they were comforting, but he couldn’t quite understand where they came from until he felt a third pair of arms around him and smelt a third scent; heather.

This smell, which wasn’t quite as familiar, pulled him out of his mind and he suddenly became aware of who was holding him and the tears making tracks down his face.

Gradually, his tears slowed as he lent into the peace and comfort that was being offered.

An unknown time later, he felt the strength to shift slightly, which made Ginny and Hermione move back. They were still touching him, Ginny with her head on his shoulder and Hermione with her hand on his leg, but he had a little room.

“Sorry.” He apologised automatically, making Ginny raised her head from his shoulder and stare at him with fire and tear filled eyes.

“You have nothing to apologise for.”

He shrugged, not really believing her, and looked down, but she lifted his chin.

“Truly, you don’t have anything to apologise for. You’re allowed to feel, you’re allowed to be upset. But we’ll get through this.”

* * *

Five days later, it was New Year’s Eve and Harry was stood in the Hall with Draco, Narcissa and Severus, waiting for their guests to arrive.

It had been a trying few days and he had spent most of the time hiding in his room, learning to play his guitar or having subdued conversations with his friends and family, either in person or over their mirrors.

He smoothed over his maroon dress robes and glanced around the room; they were all dressed for a party – a high society party, but a party none the less – with Narcissa in her House colours of black as silver, as was custom for the host (or in this hostess), Draco wore a deep but dusty purple and Severus black (because obviously) with gold trim.

Harry knew that still wasn’t ready to face more than his friends and family, but he had at least relaxed enough to enjoy the party tonight.

The first people to arrive were Hermione and her parents, led by Sirius, through the front door, as they couldn’t come by floo and the house was still precautionarily under the Fidelius. Greetings were passed around, starting with Hermione, who had obviously been coaching her parents in wizarding society etiquette, and Harry took the time to consider the repercussions of them being here.

Hermione’s parents were most probably the first muggles to step foot in this house, being the Black ancestral home, and they were definitely the first muggles to be dressed in wizard robes (courtesy of another shopping trip by Narcissa) in this house.

Matthew was looking dashing in a pale green, while Mary complimented him in pale blue and Hermione in a darker, more periwinkle, blue. Sirius brought up the rear in what could only be described as Gryffindor red, because Hogwarts house pride all the way.

Draco showed the Grangers and Sirius (who already knew but joined them away) where the ballroom was - explaining on the way how it was ‘quite small’ at only space for twenty five couples, which was more than big enough for Harry – while the remaining three moved into the Floo Room to welcome the rest of the guests who would be coming the more typical way.

First through the floo were the Greengrasses; Daphne, Astoria, Cora and Robert, looking like a perfect pureblood family as they greeted everyone gracefully.

Harry led them to the ballroom, and was back before the next people arrived, the Lovegoods, Neville and his Gran, and finally the four youngest Weasley’s, plus Molly and Arthur.

As everyone began to settle into conversations around the room, Hermione sought out Narcissa and they retired to a corner together.

They talked quietly about inconsequential things for a while, until Narcissa fixed the younger girl with a piercing stare not unlike her son’s - save for the colour – and asked her.

“What is you want to ask me?”

Hermione stuttered for a moment, wondering whether to deny that there was anything or to gather her Gryffindor courage and just speak. Eventually, she made up her mind and let out a small sigh.

“I wanted to talk to you about Draco.”

“Oh?” Narcissa raised her eyebrows questioningly despite obviously having guessed this, “Is everything alright?”

“Yes, everything is amazing,” Hermione gave a happy sigh, then a small laugh, “And that’s the problem. I can see myself staying with Draco forever and we’ve only been together for six months, I love that, but it just feels unreal. I don’t know if I will be or I should be happy in the long run with my first boyfriend.”

Narcissa was silent for a moment, thinking it though, “This might be a clash of cultures. In the muggle world, you can have many relationships lasting over a year, yes?”

“Yes, people often have multiple long-term relationships in their lifetime. Is that not how it works among witches and wizards because of our magic? If you are in a relationship with someone who will not be good for you in the long-term, your magic will push you away from them and the relationship will last a matter of months, whereas if you are well suited – a soulmate, as it were – then your magic will pull you together.”

“You’re saying that I wouldn’t still be with Draco if we weren’t meant to be?”

“Exactly, you would have had many little disagreements, you would feel more uncomfortable, it just wouldn’t feel _right_ , not like you say it does now.”

Hermione was quiet for a few minutes, thinking about what her apparently eventual mother-in-law was saying to her.

“I’m not saying you stuck in with Draco.” Narcissa assured her, “You could break up if you wanted to, but there is little reason to do that, when the evidence of you being well suited is there. Most witches and wizards marry young, simply because there is no point in waiting when the person you know you are meant to be with is right there, and most of them marry their first love, because they are their true love.”

“It makes sense.” Hermione nodded slowly, “It’s just a lot to get my head around, it grew up in this country, but it feels like a different world.”

“I suppose it is hard.” Narcissa sympathised, “But I can explain anything you want, you just have to ask.”

“Thank you. I’ll probably have some more questions for you, in the future.”

“Of course.” She gave a sweet smile, “But now, I must open the dancing!” he eyes sparkled as she stood and moved across the room to where Sirius was.

As the Lord of her House, she had to dance with first dance with him and within moments, Draco was next to her, offering her a hand and a dance as girlfriend of the Black Heir (also he wanted to dance with her). They moved together to the waltz, not unlike on Christmas day, swaying on the beat and moving their feet.

In preparation for the Yule Ball, Draco had given Hermione dance lessons which she enjoyed immensely, if only because it meant she got to dance with her boyfriend and stare into his eyes as she was doing now. As always, they looked like molten silver and changed slightly in the light, giving the effect of movement deep within the irises.

He wasn’t looking at her in that moment, he was glancing around the room and smiling to see everyone enjoying themselves. The smile seemed to light up his face; it wasn’t shown much in public, so when she got the opportunity to see it, she stared, trying to imprint it into her brain so she could never forget.

“I love you.” She whispered softly, just loud enough for him to hear.

His eyes snapped to hers, a look of surprise across his face that quickly morphed back to a delighted smile.

“I love you too.” She could see that he meant it, it was hidden deep in his eyes, but it was there, clear to her.

He pressed a kiss to her lips and pulled her closed to him, letting her lean on his chest as they danced slowly. They would dance the night away, just they two.

A few hours later, Harry and Draco worked to supply everyone with drinks so that they could toast the turn of the year.

Midnight rolled around and they cheered, Harry pulling Ginny into a kiss then glancing happily around the room.

Hermione and Draco were huddled in a corner, Ron was saying something that was making Daphne laugh, Neville was staring shyly at Luna, who was dancing an odd dance that apparently brought luck to the next year, Sirius, Remus and the twins were doing something suspicious over by the drinks, and everyone else was just milling around.

The cheery atmosphere seemed to calm Harry to his core in a way that he hadn’t felt since before term started. The tournament was out of his mind for the moment, and so was the article - he didn’t have to deal with people who wanted details and didn’t actually care about him.

Life wasn’t without its troubles, wasn’t perfect, but what is perfect? Merely a social construct. No, this was flawed perfection, and Harry thought that it was its own kind of wonderful.

* * *

The next day Hermione came bounding down the stairs of Grimmauld Place and into the kitchen with a small stack of books in her hands. She and her parents had stayed for the night, despite everyone else going home, as it wasn’t as simple as just stepping through the floo for them.

Once in the kitchen, she skidded to a halt in front of startled looking Harry, who was the only one downstairs yet.

“Hermione? Is everything okay?”

“More than okay! I think I’ve solved the clue!”

“The clue?” Harry looked puzzled.

“The clue for the second Task!”

Harry’s face brightened, “Have you?” he looked a little guilty, “I probably haven’t been giving it as much thought as I should have been. I wanted to wait until after the holidays. You haven’t been spending the last month working on it, have you?”

Hermione waved off his concerns, “No, I haven’t but you know me, if I have something to solve then my brain is always working at it, even if it’s only on a subconscious level. Anyway, I was just going to sleep last night, and I had a thought. In runes we learn about Marcomannic runes, so that’s what we automatically translated, but what if we need to use a different runic language?”

Harry stared at her in wonder for a full minute before springing to life. He jumped up, squeezed Hermione into a quick but fierce hug, then run up the stairs, shouting that he’d ‘be back in a second’.

Sure enough, within minutes, he was back, waving the silver cube and grinning slightly.

“Here, this is how we had it before.”

He held it out to her, and she took it, cross referencing the symbols on the silver faces with the ones in her book of Marcomannic runes, translating each in turn.

“This one translated to closed, this one is gold, heat, turn and lost. We couldn’t find a translation for the last one but when we translated them a month ago, they didn’t seem to form a particular meaning, but that might be the whole point. Here,” she handed him one of the three books, “see if you can match these runes to this book.”

They were silent for a few minutes, reading and trying to translate until Hermione spoke up again.

“I think it’s this, Elder Futhark runes, from the second century. The symbols on the cube actually match the Elder Futhark runes closer, but they’re so similar that I didn’t see the difference. The translations are slightly different too.”

Once again, she pointed to each rune as she translated it.

“This one is open, then magic, light, turn and found. The one on the bottom doesn’t seem to have a translation.”

She bit her lip, thinking carefully as Harry lent over her shoulder, also looking at the strange symbol. Now he thought about it, it didn’t look like a rune, it was a circle, with another circle inside it and a dot inside that.

“If we can just work out what the rest is trying to say…” Harry trailed off, not really knowing where he was going, but Hermione began to mutter, mostly to herself, and nod vehemently.

“Yes, yes. What is it telling us, open? That’s saying that the runes are giving us instruction as to how to open it, the clue might be inside? Magic, it wants us to use magic to open it. Light? But we have had it in the light.”

She went back to biting her lip, but Harry spoke up, frowning.

“Maybe we need to put the words together? Magic light – like a Lumos charm maybe.”

“Hmm,” Hermione nodded, “You may well be right.”

Harry pulled out his wand with a grin but dropped it a little when Hermione grabbed his wrist.

“You can’t do magic; you’ll get told off by the Ministry!”

“Oh don’t worry, they can’t detect magic behind these wards.” He gently shook her off then lit his wand, pointing it at the cube.

Nothing happened.

“Huh, maybe I need to point it at a specific part?” he suggested, growling a little when Hermione latched painfully back onto his wrist, this time in excitement.

“That’s what the last symbol is - not a symbol, a target! Shine the light on this target!”

They turned the cube around and he lit his wand again. This time there was a small click, but nothing beyond that.

“Wait, there’s still two more runes, turn and found. Maybe we have to turn a part of the cube to find what’s inside?”

Hermione lifted the cube, with Harry still shining the light at the small target and began trying to twist different parts of it until the face that held the target began to turn off, revealing a small compartment inside.

Despite nearly jumping off her chair with excitement, Hermione handed the cube to Harry, who carefully pushed his finger into the compartment and pulled out a small piece of paper. He unfolded it and Hermione looked over his shoulder as they read the words.

**_Discovered what is taken, save what is lost,_ **

**_Fly like a bird, high in the sky._ **

**_Safe in a tree, the taken hang,_ **

**_An hour along destroyed,_ **

**_Forever put to rest._ **

**_Overcome obstacles, dip and dive,_ **

**_Discovered what is taken, save what is lost._ **

****

Harry didn’t try to hold back his groan.

“A riddle?! But we only just translated the runes!”

Hermione shushed him with a wave of her hand, biting her lip again.

“This doesn’t seem to bad; they’ve taken something that’s yours - or they will take something that’s yours, they haven’t specified – and you have to get it back, maybe flying? It their a big tree in Beauxbatons?”

Harry nodded, “A huge oak about a mile into the forest, it’s twice as big as any of the other trees.”

“It would seem that whatever it is they take will be in that tree, and you have an hour to fly there, collect it and fly back, or it will be destroyed.”

“That doesn’t seem nearly complicated enough, eespecially as two of us are seekers and the other two are chasers. I wonder what they’ll take?”

“Hm, I guess it will a object that means something to you, your guitar maybe? This says that there will be obstacles, in the past they mostly use animals, so we’ll have to do some research on flying animals and how to defeat them.”

Harry pulled his sister into a hug, laughing at the research frenzy he knew she was about to enter, “Thank you for helping me.”

With a smile, Hermione returned the hug, “Anytime, brother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know, my riddle/poem writing skills aren’t the best, sorry about that.  
> This might have been better if I’d have actually written some of the article, but I really hate writing articles. I might add it in later, and if I do then I make a note of it so you can come back.  
> Anyway, yes we all hate Skeeter and no they haven’t realised that it will be a person they take, because you lying if you say you don’t believe that Harry would lock up every single person he knows so that they can’t be taken.
> 
> Also, yes I just created a new thing to justify paring everyone up! Don’t tell me that this doesn’t fix all the problems people have with the epilogue being too perfect! (it probably doesn’t but just let me have this).


	18. Ease the anger [P4]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some bad news and the lead up to the Second Task.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You nearly didn’t get a chapter this week!  
> Mostly because I wasn’t sure where it was going, and because I had to rewrite a whole section.  
> But it’s here after all, so let’s get to it!

The day before Harry was set to board the train back to Hogwarts, Severus pulled him into one of the smaller sitting rooms for a conversation.

He had a serious look on his face that made Harry panic slightly.

“Have you heard or seen anything at all about Riddle?” he asked eventually, and Harry shook his head.

“Not since the holidays, no, I think the occlumency stopped it. Why?”

“I just wanted to check.” Severus paused, staring at the floor, then looked him dead in the eye.

“You’ll be careful, won’t you?”

“Of course. Do you think something is coming?”

“We’ve thought that something is coming for a while, since your first dream, but I think it must be getting closer.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You were entered into this tournament for a reason…”

“You think it was to kill me.” Harry asked blankly.

“I don’t see why else it would be.” Severus sighed, “The tasks will only get more dangerous and I don’t want to lose you.”

Harry gave a small nod and leaned across his chair, snuggling into his dad’s chest as strong arms wrapped around him and letting out a small sigh.

When they broke apart, Severus opened his mouth, as if to say something, then closed it, obviously changing his mind. Thinking that it seemed important, Harry pushed him.

“What is it?”

Severus looked like he was about to brush it off, but he wilted a little under Harry’s firm glare and gave a sigh, rolling up his sleeve to show the dark mark which was much darker than it had been over the summer.

“This is the other reason you think something is coming, you think he is getting more powerful?”

“Yes.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes before a question came to Harry.

“Why did it fade do you think? When he died?”

Again, Severus sighed, “I have spent a lot of time thinking about that over the years, and I still don’t know for sure. I have spent a little time researching the mark, and I think that when He creates it, he puts a little of his magic into us, so that he can tap into our magic. My guess is that he pulled a bit of the Death Eater’s own back to him when he ‘died’, in an attempt to stay alive.”

Harry nodded thoughtfully, “So the mark is wrapped around the branded’s magic. Can it be removed?”

“I’ve seen it be removed once, as a punishment.”

“How would that be a punishment...?”

“It killed him. Magically beings cannot survive their magic being ripped from them like that.”

Harry paled a little, “When he vanished after killing my parents, what happened to those with the mark?”

“Sever magic exhaustion and high pain. Like part of you had been ripped out.” Severus replied simply, quietly.

“But you don’t think he properly died?” Harry was nearly whispering now.

“No, the mark only faded, he kept a small amount of the connection.”

“Then what happens if he removes all traces of the connection? When he properly dies?”

“There is no way to know for certain, but…” Severus stopped, merely looking at him with sorrowful eyes.

“No. No!” Harry cried, jumping from his seat as though he had been stung, “You can’t - I won’t lose you; I can’t lose you!”

“Harry, we don’t have a choice. I have to go, we have to get rid of Riddle, there’s no way to save me and get rid of him. If that’s what it takes then I’ll do it, I want you to be safe.”

“You can’t leave me!” Harry screamed, tears coursing down his face, “Don’t you understand?! I need you! I lost my father before I knew him, I can’t lose my dad too! I need you!”

“I know Harry, I know.” Severus tried to sooth his son through his own tears, “If there was any way I could stay and kill Riddle, I would.”

“There _has_ to be a way! We’ll find a way! We have time. We’ll find it, we’ll…” He dissolved into sobs and let his dad hold him close, desperately clinging to the warmth and comfort of his embrace.

Desperately wishing this nightmare would end.

The next morning, Harry flooed into platform nine and three quarters before quickly regretting it. There weren’t quite as many people as they were at the start of the year, but there were more than enough for him to feel uncomfortable.

A few people did stare at him, and the whispers began, so he slipped into the train quickly with Draco at his side, neither looking very happy at being there.

They eventually found their way to their usual carriage, and Harry cast a notice-me-not on it (the no magic rules were flexible on the train) keyed into his friends so that only they could come in and out.

Hermione and Daphne were already there, and he gave them a nod in greeting as he sunk onto a seat with a long sigh, ignoring the concerned looks that were directed at him and Draco as he curled up next to his girlfriend.

However unsurprising it had been when Harry looked in the mirror that morning and the huge dark circles under his eyes, tear tracks down his face and hair even messier than usual, but it still looked pretty awful.

The dark circles refused to leave, and he knew he looked exhausted, but there wasn’t much he could do about that and Draco didn’t look much better.

After the conversation he had with his Dad the day before, he had disappeared to his room and Severus had gone to find Draco, who seemed to have taken the news only a little bit better than him, not that it was surprising.

Harry closed his eyes and pretended that he couldn’t sense them looking at him or silently communicating with each other. The other four arrived and he still didn’t open his eyes, only wrapping his arm around the body that pressed into his side who he recognised as Ginny.

It wasn’t until the felt the train begin to move and the sound of the station move away that he let out a groan at the effort it took to open his eyes and lifted his wand to cast a silencing then locking charm on the door, ignoring how everyone except Hermione and Ginny were pretending that they had not been glancing between him and Draco.

“What is it, Harry?” Hermione asked gently as he stared at her without really seeing her, “What’s happened?”

At the sound of her voice, he blinked owlishly a few times, letting the world come back into focus around him before clearing his throat roughly and squeezing his eyes shut.

“Dad thinks that the dark mark is going to kill him when Riddle actually dies.”

This was met with a shocked silence and he was beginning to regret being so blunt about it, but it was too late to take it back now.

“He talked to me, then Draco about it, last night.” He looked at the blonde teenager who was staring at him with wide, shocked eyes while shaking his head as if he were still trying to wrap his head around it and allowed himself to be pulled into an embrace by Hermione.

“I told you that it’s been getting darker, he thinks that Riddle is coming back soon and so does Professor Dumbledore, I agree with them. But it turns out that when Riddle disappeared the first time, everyone with the dark mark got severe magic exhaustion. Dad thinks that Riddle took the magic in an attempt to stay alive and will take all the magic he possibly can when he dies.” Harry spoke in a monotone.

“And wizards cannot live without their magic.” Hermione whispered, while caressing Draco’s arm comfortingly.

“No.” Harry squeezed his eyes shut and stroked Elpis, who had draped herself around his neck in an effort to comfort him, “And he doesn’t think that he can get rid of it. He didn’t say what he had tried, but he seemed pretty resigned to the fact that he would have to d-die in order to keep Riddle gone for good. He wants to s-sacrifice himself.” He tried to keep his breathing calm.

“Harry, you can’t lie to yourself and say that you wouldn’t do the same in his situation.” Ginny carded a hand through his hair, “I’m not saying that you – we – should just sit back and let it happen, but I can understand where he is coming from.”

“I can too.” He gave a long sigh, then locked eyes with his girlfriend, “You would help me?”

“Of course, Love. Severus has changed your life and is a big part of Draco’s; we aren’t just going to let him die.”

At that, Harry’s eyes pricked with tears that began streaking down his cheeks as he buried his face in Ginny’s shoulder, who held him until he cried himself to sleep.

He slept for pretty much the rest of the journey - having not slept at all the night before and being safe in his girlfriend’s arms - waking up only half an hour from Hogsmeade station.

For the others, the journey was quiet, with no interruptions. Draco sat silently - leaning against Hermione, staring out of the window - while everyone else softly discussed possible research options, only joining in a few times.

In the end, they decided that the first thing they would do was ask Severus what he had already tried, then look in the Black library in the chance of finding something there.

After the Welcome Feast, which was still fairly subdued, Harry bid his friends farewell and climbed into his bed on the carriage, ready for the journey back to Beauxbatons. He curled up in the duvet and pulled out a notebook, making a list of anything that they could possibly try to get rid of the mark while trying not to think about what would happen if they didn’t succeed.

Meanwhile, in his bed in the dungeons, Severus Snape was regretting having told his son and godson about his mark so soon while battling with internalised hatred at the idea of leaving Harry to fend for himself after they had become so close.

* * *

From there, the Second Task approached swiftly, as if it were trying to catch Harry off guard.

It was weird being back at Beauxbatons, but he quickly settled back in and made good use of the library, both for the Task and for desperate attempts to find out about a possible way to get of the dark mark.

The research for the Task was coming on well, unlike the dark mark which was throwing them off at every possible turn. They had scoured the Hogwarts library, the Black library and the Beauxbatons library, coming up black with every book and Harry’s nerves were beginning to fray and splinter.

He hadn’t been able to ask Cedric for help with the research, as it couldn’t get out what they were trying to do (not that he didn’t trust Cedric) so he did it at times when the older boy was studying and he could wander around without question – although he did have to be careful about what books he was looking at around other people.

They were beginning to become desperate, looking in places that the answer would never possibly be, but they just didn’t have access to the resources that Riddle had when he created the mark.

Harry had even entertained the very real possibility that it was done using Parselmagic, which was tricky because he didn’t have any Parselmagic books, and no-one else could do the research for him because the books were in, well, Parseltongue.

He had Hermione send him some of the books, but the days were slipping out through his fingers in a whirlwind of research, training, exercising, mediation, studying and trying to keep his nerves down by playing his new guitar.

All too soon, it was only two sleeps before the Second Task and the four Champions were gathered for a last meal together, knowing that their friends and family would be there the next day and they would not be able to talk.

“So, who is coming for the Task?” Harry asked brightly.

“My Maman and my Papa and my little sister.” Fleur responded first, obviously exited.

“Oh, I didn’t know you had a sister?”

“Oui, Gabrielle, she is quite younger than me. She will be starting here next year.” Fleur explained.

“My parents are coming, and Ivo.” A rare grin crossed Viktor’s face, “I have no siblings. And you, Harry?”

“The same people as last time, I think. My two uncles, my Dad.” He ignored the sharp pang in his chest, “My girlfriend, my sister, her boyfriend and four friends.”

“You don’t seem to do anything without those friends, you seem quite inseparable.” Viktor commented.

“We are close, we know each other well and they’ve helped me through a lot.”

Viktor nodded, understanding exactly what he was referring to, although there hadn’t been as much of a reaction around the article as Harry had feared. At least, not in France. People had clearly read it, but they at least seemed to be united in the understanding that it wasn’t their business to force the topic in his face or whisper about it.

Instead a few people (namely Viktor and Cedric) had been respectfully vocal about how it shouldn’t have been published in the first place, certainly not without his permission, which Harry did appreciate.

Not being awkward about it, but not completely sweeping the comment aside, Viktor nodded in understand before changing the subject, instead asking, “Is your Headmaster not coming? I notice that he does not come for the first Task either.”

“No.” Harry shook his head after giving a grateful smile, “He’s not coming. He came to the Yule Ball because it made an even number of people and because he was asked by Madam Mafalda, but he is not coming to at least the first two Tasks, he may come to the third.”

“May I ask why?” Viktor seemed genuinely curious.

“Well, he says it’s because he’s not a judge and he’s not close to any of the competitors, so he has no right to be there.” Cassius gave him a surprised look at this, clearly he, like most of the other students, thought that he and Dumbledore were closer than they were, but Harry chose to pretend he didn’t see it.

“If he wanted to, he could just come for the Task days and be the judge, but he refused. I think it’s because he doesn’t want to seem like he’s taking advantage of Professor McGonagall.”

“How so?”

“Well, if he just came for the Task, took Professor McGonagall’s place as the person in charge for the day and left again, it would kind of undermine her authority and he wouldn’t want to do that. Whatever else Professor Dumbledore is, he’s a fair man.”

That seemed to send them into thought until Harry went back to the original question, “So Cassius, is anyone coming for you from home this weekend?”

The Slytherin shook his head, his face an expressionless mask that Harry recognised from many pureblood students and it sent his brain into planning mode – Slytherin style.

Trying to cover up the sound of the whirring in his brain and not let the conversation get awkward, he quickly asked another question.

“We do all know what the Task is, don’t we?” They hadn’t had many conversations recently, not having the time around vast amounts of research for the Task, so Harry thought that he would double check.

There were nods all around and Harry let out a little laugh, “That’s good. I’m not ashamed to say that I had a lot of help from Hermione to figure it out. Does everyone have a plan of what to do?”

Again, everyone nodded. Clearly, no-one was in the mood to talk about the Task that evening; instead, he turned to Viktor and begun a conversation about wronski feints.

Once the meal was over, Harry hurried to the Pegasus stable for some privacy and pulled out his mirror.

“Hey Dad.” He greeted and got a smile in return.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yes, I was just wondering if you had any way of quickly contacting Yasmin Jones, she was a Slytherin who left last year.”

“The one who is opening the quidditch shop? Why, what are you planning?” Severus looked at him suspiciously and he grinned.

“Well, I’ll let you in on my genius master plan…”

* * *

The next evening, Harry joined Viktor and Fleur at the portkey point in the gardens at the front of the school.

Lady and Lord Delacour were the first to arrive in a swirl of magic, holding tightly onto the hand of a ten-year-old girl who looked to be the exact miniature of Fleur with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, but dressed in lilac dress robes.

Fleur moved forward to greet them quickly, before introducing them to first Viktor, then Harry.

“Papa, you know Harry.”

“Ah, Heir Potter, how nice to see you again.”

Harry smoothly returned the bow of greeting, “Likewise, Lord Delacour, I trust you have been well since I saw you last?”

“Quite. Thankfully, the French Ministry didn’t have to answer for the world cup fiasco and not much came of the whole four contestants in the Triwizard Tournament, did it?”

“It still remains unclear exactly what happened, yes. I’m glad it didn’t add to your workload.”

With a nod, Lord Delacour turned to his wife, “My dear, I would like you to meet Harry Potter, Heir Potter, this is my wife Apolline Delacour.”

Harry stepped forward and kissed the hand of the petite yet beautiful woman, “Bonjour Lady Delacour, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Heir Potter, likewise. Please meet my daughter, Gabrielle.” She turned and spoke in French to the younger girl, who stepped forward so that Harry could give her a sweet smile and give a light kiss to the back of her hand, causing her to blush.

“Bonjour Lady Gabrielle, ca va?” he asked, putting his limited French knowledge to use, and hoping that he wouldn’t embarrass himself.

“Ca va bien, merci.” the girl answered quietly, giving him a small smile.

Just as he stepped back, another portkey came in with Viktor’s parents and Ivo, which caused more introductions to be made.

Harry warned the group that a bigger party was coming with the next portkey and everyone stepped back just in time for a big flash of magic as eleven people arrived.

Immediately, Ginny ran towards him and he swung her around, oblivious to the looks and ‘awws’ they were getting from those around them. Eventually, they broke apart and Harry greeted everyone else, before beginning the long process of introductions.

He gave the last person a special hug, “Thank you for coming, Yasmin.”

“Of course. Professor Snape explained what was happening and I couldn’t just let Cass be alone, could I? Where is he?”

“Back in the carriage, I wanted it to be a surprise, but I also didn’t want to persuade him to come and watch everyone else arrive when he didn’t think that anyone was coming for him.”

“Ahh, ever thoughtful.” Yasmin grinned and ruffled his hair affectionately, laughing when he scowled.

“Let’s go.” Harry led the way around to the carriage, then entered to call Cassius out.

As soon as he caught sight of Yasmin, he pulled up short and stared.

“ _Yasmin_?”

“Yep, it’s me.” She grinned happily and pulled him into a quick hug then raised her hands as if to urge him on, “I’m here to cheer!”

Cassius glanced between her and Harry, working out what had happened.

“Thank you.” He said simply, with a small bow, before turning back to Yasmin and listening to her news and chatter contentedly.

They all forgot for a little while that they would have to face the Second Task the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw, isn’t Harry cute.
> 
> I know, I know, isn’t Harry life depressing enough without killing his Dad. I did what I did.  
> I also know that I’m not good at writing really emotional stuff so sorry about that.
> 
> This was a bit of a weird chapter I think, very bitty but here we are I guess.  
> Next week you should, if all goes to plan, get the Second Task. I’m not sure if that will be one or two parts yet but I'll know by this time next week :)


	19. All for you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second Task.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, this chapter isn’t two days late, it’s your imagination :)  
> Anyway, now that it is here, you might as well enjoy it.  
> For anyone that wants to hear the (pretty awful) riddle again before the task, here it is:  
> Discovered what is taken, save what is lost,  
> Fly like a bird, high in the sky.  
> Safe in a tree, the taken hang,  
> An hour along destroyed,  
> Forever put to rest.  
> Overcome obstacles, dip and dive,  
> Discovered what is taken, save what is lost.

The day of the Second Task dawned, and Harry was wide awake as soon as his eyes opened at five, an hour earlier than he normally woke.

He tried to mediate but gave up after twenty minutes and instead began to run through the lists he had made of flying magical animals and how to defeat them, with the help of his friends, trying to absorb any little bit of information that he could.

At six twenty-five, he got changed into his workout gear and met Cedric for their morning run.

Conversation was stilted that morning, especially when they came up to the white stands which were now facing away from them and towards the direction of the huge oak Harry knew to be about a mile in that direction.

Instead, they ran in silence through the brisk morning air, soaking up the piece while they could.

When he got back to his room, Harry checked through his trunk for anything that had been taken as his object, but nothing seemed to be missing.

Shrugging, he collected his things and showered (pulling his friends out of bed as he went) before making his way to breakfast.

Sev, Sirius and Remus were already there, so the five of them joined their table, not really minding the squish of two extra bodies.

The girls didn’t seem to have appeared yet, but Harry wasn’t too worried. The four of them got on with Holly and Estelle like a house on fire, so he wasn’t surprised that they had forgotten the time and he trusted them to be there for the Task.

Sure enough, he was just finishing a breakfast pastry when Hermione, Luna and Daphne walked in with Holly and Estelle.

They sat down at the next table after saying good morning and Harry was just about to ask where Ginny was when Fleur burst into the room with her parents in hot pursuit, shouting at the Minister, who was there for the Task, in rapid french which Harry could only understand little bits of, so he turned to Hermione (who was nearly fluent, having holidayed in France a lot) for a translation.

Hermione looked concerned as she said, “They can’t find Gabrielle, her little sister. Apparently, she’s been missing since this morning, she snuck out of her room and didn’t come back. The Minister is saying that she is safe, and that they shouldn’t worry.”

Harry frowned, he felt like he was missing something important, like he had all the pieces of the puzzle but one of them was the wrong way around.

“Where’s Ginny?” Hermione asked suddenly.

“I was about to ask you the same thing. Isn’t she with you?”

“No.” Hermione looked at him, worry evident on her face, “She left early this morning, said that you would be stressing, and she wanted to go and find you.”

Harry’s face drained of colour, “She never got to me.”

“I’m sure she’s – “ Hermione started, only to stop as Harry jumped to his feet and ran over to Cassius and Viktor - who were sat together with Yasmin – the pieces of the puzzle falling together.

“Cassius, where is Eloise?” he asked urgently, and the older boy gave him a confused look before answering, scanning the ballroom was he did so.

“I haven’t seen her this morning, why?”

Ignoring the question, Harry turned to the Bulgarian, “Viktor, where is Ivo?”

“He went for a run.”

“When?”

“Two hours? He should be back soon. Why?”

Harry growled in answer and turned to storm towards Minster Brodeur who was still trying (unsuccessfully) to calm the Delacour’s. He could hardly see where he was going being mostly blinded by rage at the nerve of the French Minister.

His magic reached out and pulled the Minister around so that he was facing him without him saying a word or even properly thinking about it.

“Have you taken people hostage for us to save?” he asked, sounding dangerously calm even as he could feel his magic whipping around him, stunning everyone in the ballroom to silence.

When he didn’t get an answer, a wind picked up and his voice roared with it, “DID YOU THINK IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO DRAG UNTRAINED AND UNPREDARED PEOPLE INTO THIS TOURNAMENT?!”

“T-they’re perfectly safe.” Minister Brodeur stuttered, terrified of the power rolling of this fourteen-year-old.

“A TEN-YEAR-OLD, A THRITEEN-YEAR-OLD AND TWO SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLDS! YOU DIDN’T EVEN GET THEIR PERMISSON DID YOU? YOU CLEARLY DIDN’T GET PERMISSION FROM THEIR PARENTS!”

He rounded on Madam Mafalda, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Karkaroff who were standing nearby, his voice going back to being dangerously quiet.

“Did any of you know about this?” his tone promised that they would face consequences if they did, but all three shook their heads with expressions of shock and rage on their faces.

Harry searched for any sign of a lie and, finding none, turned back to the Minister, the wind focusing on him and buffeting him from all sides.

“DID YOU EVEN STOP AND THINK?” he screamed, “DID YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH DANGER THEY COULD BE IN? PEOPLE HAVE DIED IN THIS COMPETTION AND NOT ALL OF THEM WERE CHAMPIONS! THERE IS A TEN-YEAR-OLD STUCK IN A TREE SOMEWHERE BECAUSE OF YOU!”

“B-but they’re perfectly safe.” Minister Brodeur broke in quickly as Harry stopped to draw breath, “They are in stasis and will remain in stasis until they land.”

Harry nearly tore his hair out at the stupidity, “AND THAT’S A GOOD THING?! That means they can’t fight back and will DIE if we drop them – HOW IS THAT A GOOD THING?!”

The Minister just stuttered and stammered for a few minutes, a look of panic on his face as if he already knew his career was over but Harry let out a disbelieving laugh.

“You didn’t even THINK about it! And I thought that the British Minister was bogus – at least he doesn’t put children’s lives in danger all for a STUPID tournament!”

He took a deep breath to try and collect himself before checking that his fellow Champions - all looking of shocked and angry as he felt - were with him and addressing the Minister (who was still floundering) for a final time.

“I think that we are ready to start the Task now, Minister.” He sneered the last word and turned to march out of the ballroom.

“Now see here,” Minister Brodeur straightened and tried to take control of the situation, “The Task doesn’t start for another hour and a half.”

Lord Delacour made to interrupt but Sirius held him back, curious to see how Harry would handle this, now he was slightly less - windy?

Harry turned and lifted an eyebrow, still radiating power, “I think our schedule has changed now. The Champions are here, so are the judges. We are ready to begin and I don’t see a reason to delay. In fact, there are many more negatives to delaying, especially for you.”

The Minister narrowed his eyes and stepped towards Harry, having gathered most of his self-assuredness back now that the wind was gone, “Are you threatening me?”

“Of course not, Minister.” Harry replied in an innocent tone that was offset by the anger still displayed in his eyes, “Merely telling you who will be to blame if anything happens to my Girlfriend, or any of the other hostages.”

Giving an almost sarcastic bow, Harry turned on heal and left the ballroom, closely followed by the Champions, as well as their families and friends.

They passed Rita Skeeter in the doorway, who had clearly seen most of that conversation (confrontation?), as she was grinning wildly, but Harry marched straight past, ignoring both her and the noise that erupted from the Ballroom the second he left.

With every step he took towards the stands, his anger lessoned (although it never completely dissipated) and anxiety took its place, telling him every little thing that could go wrong as well as the devastating effects each of those possible failures would have.

Hermione grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly, which warmed him slightly as he knew that she was well aware of all the dangers and yet still had enough faith in him to believe that he could do this.

When they reached the stands, they congregated as a group, families and friends biding the Champions good luck and moving to sit in the stands where the rest of the school was settling with anticipation.

The Champions, the judges and a few medical personnel from the school moved through the bottom of the stands to the judging table and the start line. The judges taking a little time to get themselves organised while the Champions pulled on robes that wouldn’t flap around too much while flying, each in their school (or house) colours so that they would stand out.

Before long, they were all ready and they wished each other luck before heading out to the start line where the air was crackling with suspense as the crowd waited nervously.

Madam Mafalda stepped forward and cast sonorous on herself to announce the rules (clearly no-one trusted the Minister to say anything else).

“Welcome everyone to the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament.”

There was applause, but it was snuffed pretty quickly by the anticipation in the air.

“Yes. I know that we are anxious to get started so I will make this quick. For this Task, the Champions have to fly to the Great Oak a mile away, in which their _hostages_ ,” she spat the word, sending a glare at the Minister, “are hanging and fly back again, avoiding or defeating the obstacles along the way. They will then be scored out of ten by each of the four judges for how quickly they complete the Task, what skills they use to complete it and if they, or their _hostages_ , are injured.” Another glare for the Minister.

She flicked her wand and the same giant mirrors that were used for the first Task appeared - one for each Champion - hovering in front of the audience. Another flick saw tiny versions hovering behind each of them, to catch the action when they got further away.

“That is all. If the Champions would like to mount their brooms?”

They did, Fleur and Cassius (the two Chasers) gripping Nimbus 2000 while Viktor and Harry had Firebolts. Maybe that was an unfair advantage, but Harry didn’t really care in that moment, he just wanted to get Ginny back to safety.

Sending a burst of magic through his bracelet (which the pair had tested as soon as Harry came back to France) in the hopes she would feel it, Harry took a deep breath and waited for the starting signal.

“Three, two, one, _go_.” Madam Mafalda started them, and the four Champions shot off into the sky.

As they catapulted through the air, Harry was level with Viktor while Fleur and Cassius were just behind them. None of them were going at full pelt, knowing that it could be dangerous for them to go against potential obstacles at high speeds but also wanting to rescue their hostages as quickly as possible.

A cloud of deep blue imps rose suddenly in front of them and Harry swerved upwards to avoid them, closely followed by Viktor but not by Fleur or Cassius, who he could hear being hit by the pesky creatures behind him as he came abruptly face to face with a stern looking hippogriff who had been hiding behind the swarm.

Seeing the razor sharp talons and fantastic manoeuvrability that hippogriffs possess in action as Viktor tried to get past and got slashed viciously in the arm, Harry decided against trying to out-fly it and instead came to a screeching halt and bowed carefully, not breaking eye contact, which was a lot harder than he was expecting on a broom.

After what seem like an age of being sized up by the eagle eyes, the hippogriff bowed back and he moved forwards slowly, rubbing it on the nose as it let out a soft scree.

“You’re a handsome boy, but I really need to go now, you can go back down to the ground if you like.”

Another scree and the hippogriff turned, flying down to a small clearing in the trees below them as Harry took in a deep breath and moved forwards again, to where he could see some small shapes silhouetted on the skyline.

In between him and the silhouettes, Viktor was stopped, fighting a seemingly invisible animal, but Harry didn’t have time to contemplate this as he flew onwards. Whatever it was didn’t attack him.

As he urged his broom past Viktor and onwards, he saw that the silhouettes were actually a flock of small reddish-brown dragons with two legs - wyverns. Deciding to try his luck at speaking to them while the other Champions were out of hearing range (and very thankful that the mirror didn’t transmit what he was saying) Harry pulled his broom up at a respectable distance.

“ _Greeting my fine friends, would I be allowed to come past_?”

“ _A Speaker, a Speaker_.” They hissed to one another edging closer.

The biggest (at about a metre in length), who seemed to be the leader, hovered only a little way in front of him and spoke.

“ _We have been told to not let anyone past.”_ Harry sighed softly, just hoping he wasn’t going to have to fight these beautiful creatures when the pack leader spoke again, “ _But we are loyal to Speakers first. We did not want to be here; it was requested of us in exchange for our freedom to the mountains_.”

“ _You were being held captive_?” Harry asked, outranged.

“ _We were_.”

“ _My friends are being held captive, in that tree over there_.” Harry pointed, “ _The four of us only want them back, we do not want to harm you, or any of these other beautiful creatures.”_

The leader considered him for a moment, “ _We will help you get to the tree, and then we will be free. We will protect you and your friends_.”

“ _Thank you, good sir, thank you_.”

True to their word, the flock of ten or so wyverns flew with him and the other Champions who followed just behind, after Harry warned them not to attack, and protected then from the creatures in the last quarter mile; leading them through a cloud of snidgets that reflected the sun, nearly blinding them, and a beautiful occamy who was persuaded to join them in their quest to the great oak.

A few minutes flight and the hostages came into view, tied to a thick branch of the old oak in uncomfortable looking positions.

There was no movement as they neared, and Harry quickly realised that they were frozen in position, not just unconscious, but they were thankfully frozen in a position which would allow them to be put on brooms. At least the French Minister had thought about that much.

With the wyverns help, the Champions ended up reaching the tree together and they all collected their hostages, Harry holding Ginny close and stinking her to his back on the broom.

Viktor left first, then Harry just behind him, with Cassius and Fleur behind them while the wyvern pack and the occamy stayed safe in the tree.

The journey began to reserve itself as Viktor blasted the Snidgets out of the way and they carried on where the wyverns had been.

Suddenly, Harry slammed into something that wasn’t there – which was an extremely confounding feeling – and nearly fell from his broom, only the sticking charm stopping Ginny from falling as his right shoulder was nearly wrenched from its socket.

Panting slightly, he held out his left arm to feel if the Thing was still there, but he couldn’t feel anything, so he began to move forwards again.

He had barely gone a few metres when a scream echoed from just in front of and below him. Looking around, he saw Fleur being attacked by what seemed to be gargoyles and a small blonde-haired girl falling from behind her.

The drop was about fifty metres and Harry dived down without a second thought, catching Gabrielle just a metre from the ground and swerving level sharply, not quite managing to miss a tree trunk as he did so.

There was a sharp crack from his broom as he tipped forwards and banged his head on the trunk just hard enough to see stars as he fell, holding Gabrielle close with Ginny still stuck to his back. They landed with a small bump and Harry groaned a little, gripping his head with his hands as he willed it to stop its gentle throbbing.

After a few minutes, he lifted his head and pulled the stiff figures of Ginny and Gabrielle off him so he could work out how to get back without a functioning broom.

Just as he was beginning to despair, there was a scree from behind a tree and the hippogriff that Harry had befriended earlier stepped into view, tilting its head to the side as if to ask him if he was okay.

“Well, I’ve ridden a hippogriff once before and you look nice and strong, how about it?” he asked the beautiful creature, with a bow.

“Scree!” the hippogriff told him, bowing back before trotting over to a nearby tree log and offering his back so that they could climb on.

“Thank you, my friend.”

Harry shrunk the remains of his firebolt, despite it being broken beyond repair, and put it in his pocket before pulling Ginny onto his back, lifting Gabrielle into his arms, and hauling himself onto the hippogriff.

He secured them all in, ensuring that neither of the girls could fall, before patting the hippogriff in reassurance that they were ready.

This second hippogriff flight wasn’t much smoother than his first - which had happened the year before in a Care of Magical Creatures lesson with the help of Hagrid – and it wasn’t very enjoyable with less room due to being sandwiched between to people and his head and shoulder throbbing as they were, but it was quite quick, and they were back to the start/finish line within a few minutes.

Immediately, he was swarmed by Fleur, who was (understandably) screaming for her little sister as she ran towards them and covered both him and Gabrielle in kisses.

“Thank you, thank you. You save my little sister, thank you.” He repeated over and over, seemingly unaware that he was about to throw up.

Quickly, he knelt on the ground, heaving as his head pounded and he became vaguely aware of the hippogriff sheltering him from the stares of the crowd and the smothering kisses of Fleur.

“Thank you, my friend.” He choked out, giving him a pat as he pulled himself back to his feet and turned to the healers who were hurrying towards him, swaying slightly as he did so.

One of them hauled him off to the medical tent and the other lifted up both Ginny and Gabrielle, bringing them along too.

Once in the tent, he was pushed gently onto a bed while the man who had Ginny waved his wand over her and she relaxed, her eyes coming open as she looked around in confusion.

“Is she okay?” Harry asked, trying to peer around the healer who was standing over him, “Ginny, are you okay?”

“Harry? What happened?”

“He’ll explain in a minute dear.” The Healer interrupted, “I just need to sort him out.” She waved her wand over him to check his injuries and tutted softly, “Stupid tournament, a recipe for disaster. Using people who didn’t even agree to it.”

Harry almost laughed at how much she sounded like Madam Pomfrey. Was it a requirement of all school Healers to mutter about the stupidity of their employees while healing their patients?

“Here.” She thrust a potion at him, “To clear up your concussion. I assume you hit your head?”

“I crashed into a tree.”

“Of course you did.” She rolled her eyes and began muttering again, “A miracle that neither of the others are injured, don’t know how you managed that. No self-survival.”

“My sister calls it my ‘saving people thing’.”

“Humph.” She helped him to peel off his robes and pull of his t-shirt, then began to slather a thick paste on the bruises that had sprung up along his collar bone and shoulder, “And what caused this one?”

“I crashed into something that wasn’t there.”

“Ah, the thestrals.”

“Oh.” Harry had heard Luna talking about thestrals before, but he had never been able to see them. At least that explained why he hadn’t seen them.

“Now.” The healer brought him out of is thoughts, “Your shoulder will be a little stiff for a day or so. Apply this paste again tonight and come and see me in the morning.”

“Thank you.” She gave him a smile as he hopped out of bed, all dizziness gone.

“Your welcome, dear.” She replied but he wasn’t listening anymore, he was making his way over to the next bed, where Ginny had been sat for the last few minutes, still looking a bit confused.

“Hey Gin,” he sat next to her and pulled her into his arms, “Are you alright?”

“Hi Harry. The Healer said I’m fine, but I’m not quite sure what happened. I was leaving the dorm this morning to go and find you when there was a flash of light. Next thing I know I’m waking up here.” She frowned, frustrated, then blinked and looked up at him, “Don’t you have the Task to go to? Don’t risk losing your magic for me!”

She began to push him up, but he sent a calming pulse of magic through his bracelet, “Gin, Gin, don’t worry, the Task is over.”

“It is?” she frowned again, “How did you do?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t got my score yet. Let me explain.” He waited for Ginny to nod before lacing his fingers through hers.

“I came to breakfast this morning and noticed you were there but before I could ask anyone, the Delacours burst in, saying that they couldn’t find their youngest daughter, Gabrielle. I asked Hermione where you were, and she said that you had come looking for me, but you never arrived. I asked around and Viktor’s boyfriend was missing, as well as Cassius’ date from the Yule Ball.”

A look of understanding then fury crossed Ginny’s face as Harry continued, “It turns out that the French Minister thought it would be a good idea to kidnap four people close to the Champions and take them hostage without permission for use in the Task.”

Ginny’s face was quickly turning crimson as she jumped to her feet and began to storm out of the door, dragging Harry behind her.

She was quickly brough to a halt when they got pounced on by the Delacours before they were properly out of the tent.

“Thank you, thank you. You saved my little sister.” Fleur kissed him on both cheeks before gathering her a little sister back in her arms again.

Lady Delacour kissed him on the cheeks also, then Lord Delacour stepped forwards, “Thank you Heir Potter. We own a life debt to you.”

Harry just about bit back a groan, instead giving a tired smile, “Really, Sir. Anyone would have done the same.”

“If you think that then you are more innocent than I thought.” Lord Delacour raised an eyebrow

With a small smirk, Harry replied, “Or perhaps I don’t like being the centre of attention.”

“Touché.” He clapped him on the shoulder, “Either way, I thank you. Anything at all we can do for you, then don’t hesitate to let me know.”

“All I ask is that you get rid of Minister Brodeur. Don’t ruin his life, he only made one mistake. A mistake that nearly cost a life I admit, but you shouldn’t ruin a life for a life nearly ruined, you cannot fight fire with fire.”

“That will be done within the month, I am sure, Heir Potter.”

“Please, call me Harry. And you might consider running for Minister yourself Lord Delacour, from what I have seen and what my godfather has told me, you are a fine politician and a good man.”

“I will consider it Harry, thank you. And you must call me Antoine and my wife Apolline, you are a friend enough after this.”

“Of course, Antoine. But now I must find my family.”

A quick bow and they separated, Ginny pulling Harry to an isolated spot then hissing at him, “Are you trying to collect life debts?! What happened?!”

Harry sighed, “Fleur got attacked by gargoyles and dropped Gabrielle fifty metres off the ground. I caught her when she was just about to hit the ground but crashed into a tree and hit my head. My broom broke and there wasn’t room for three of us on it anyway, Fleur had already been brought back by the gargoyles, but just when I was about to call for help, a hippogriff I had befriended earlier appeared and offered to take us back.”

Ginny stared at him for a few seconds before shaking her head, “Only you, Harry. Only you.”

Blushing slightly, Harry shrugged, “Come on, the others will be worrying about us.”

He was right of course, the two were nearly smothered by friends and Harry could hardly escape to go and collect his scores with the other Champions.

Fleur was awarded half marks for getting past most of the obstacles and rescuing her hostage, even if she didn’t make it back of the way, giving her a total of forty-three points, Cassius was given a score of thirty, having arrived back second with minimal injuries, giving him a total of fifty-five and Viktor was awarded thirty five for coming back first with only a few injuries – bruising from the thestral and a gash from the hippogriff – giving him a total of seventy points.

Harry was awarded thirty-five points also - he did complete the Task and was awarded extra points for saving another contestant, despite being injured, destroying his broom and being the last one to arrive back – which put him in the lead over all with seventy-one points.

He didn’t care too much about the actual points, being more relieved that Ginny was safe and worried in case Viktor and Cassius were annoyed that he had more (or the same number of) points than them, despite finishing after, but they were both happy for him.

They rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and forgetting that they still had another Task to complete before they were free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, no idea if this chapter is any good, but here we are. It’s written now.  
> If anyone’s wondering, Yasmin didn’t get taken because she wasn’t supposed to be there, so the Minister didn’t know she could be taken.  
> I have no clue what the next chapter is, but it should be uploaded next Sunday (actual on time I hope) so I’ll see you then!


	20. All for you [P2]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The discovery of the Third Task.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who’s finally worked out how to upload from college! That’s right, me!  
> And it only took me nine weeks :D  
> Well, I'm at college right now and here I will stay until at least the second of December because England’s going into another lockdown! *heavy sarcasm* Yay!  
> Anyway, this chapter is a lot more on time that the last one, so enjoy.

After everyone had gone home or settled down after the Second Task, Harry had nearly a month and a half to take a break before he was going to be told what the third Task would be; the only thing he knew so far was that it was taking place on the 26th of May and he wouldn’t find out any more until the 8th of April.

Instead, he took the time to pick up a few of the things he had lost the time to do in the run up to the Second Task, playing his guitar, doing research, spending time with the Pegasi and the Hippogriff he had befriended – Kratos, according to the game keeper, was the leader of the small herd who lived in the forest.

Harry found that Hippogriffs were actually extremely agile in flight and chasing them through the air was an amazing seeker practise, so they went out regularly, especially as the weather became slightly warmer, Cedric and Viktor occasionally accompanying them.

The coming of spring also meant that Harry could spend me time outside, practising his elemental magic that had been severely neglected since Christmas.

It took him to the woods one afternoon, there was no-one around, but it was still too risky to try any of the really powerful things he had managed while at Hogwarts, they were just too noticeable to do when he was trying to keep them secret.

And he really wanted to keep them secret; there had been enough backlash from Rita Skeeter after his explosion of magic at the Second Task, but the outcomes weren’t negative by any means. It just got people talking about him, which he wasn’t a fan of, but he did understand it, it’s not everyday you come across a fourteen year old who produces a full blown gale when they’re angry.

Then again, Harry was never going to be a normal teenager. Or wizard.

It had never happened before, so he talked to Severus about it, and they came up with the theory that it was actually his mediations - which he had shifted to help him focus more of his actual magic recently - that were making the difference.

They decided that he should have a go at wordless, and possibly wandless, magic soon, but had made the choice to wait until the Tournament was over, focusing on that for the time being.

Another good thing that came from the second Task was that, only two weeks later, Antoine Delacour had managed to get Minister Brodeur removed and was well on his way to being the next French Minister for Magic; they conversed regularly now, and Harry was sure that he was the perfect choice to run the country.

There was still a part of him that felt bad for the former French Minister, but that one mistake had nearly cost lives, and he couldn’t risk it happening again.

Instead of dwelling on it, Harry went for a walk in the forest, where only the creatures could disturb him, so he could further his earth elemental abilities. He was no where near mastering it, like he had the other three, but he had been making progress in the few weeks since the Second Task.

Coming across a log that looked perfect for sitting on, Harry held out his hand and concentrated, pulling the water from just the top layer of the log up, into a bubble by his hand, before discarding it off to the side, leaving a dry place for him to sit.

He had made the mistake of taking too much water out and accidently killing plants before, but he had much better control now, taking only what he needed, from the exact place he wanted to sit.

Recently, he had memorised the magical and genic makeup of Virginia Creepers - which were strong, woody, and very hard to break – so that he could create it without having the plant in front of him.

Something he had read in one of Hufflepuff’s journals stuck with him, about how useful being able to grow a strong vine was, so you would restrain someone if needed, or tie something together in an emergency.

It seemed like one of those skills that would just come in useful at some point, although he couldn’t think of when that point might be.

The only problem so far was that he really couldn’t create it that quickly.

Harry held out a hand and closed his eyes, picturing the makeup and imagining the magic he was trying to create; slowly knitting the very cells together and feeling like he could control the world as he did so.

He opened his eyes but maintained his concentration, watching as the vine slowly grew in length and width in his hand; little groups of five leaves positioned along its length with red tinged edges, growing from tiny little buds and bursting open, as if it were a sped up time lapse.

It grew at about a centimetre per second – although it did take longer to start it off – which wasn’t as good as it sounded. If you needed a metre of vine, then that would take one hundred seconds to grow, which wasn’t great if you needed it _now_.

But it was a start.

Not letting himself get caught up on how much progress he hadn’t made yet, Harry stopped putting magic into the vine when it reached two metres in length and began to test its strength.

Once he had established that it wasn’t breaking at all, he tried some of the other things he had learnt on it - making it move in his hands, shrinking and enlarging – before putting it back to normal and creating another vine of the same length.

This done, he took out his wand and put a charm that he had learnt in herbology on both vines so that they would not grow anymore and take over all nearby plant life, but they would still stay alive.

Next, he grabbed a nearby log that was just wide and long enough for two people to sit side by side and pulled the water out of it so it was completely dry, then spelled the mud off both it and his hands.

Elpis began to wind her way of his pocket, where she had been napping, and around his arm, looking around curiously.

_“What are you doing Little One?”_

_“Building a swing.”_

_“A swing? Why?”_ she teleported from his arm and began to make her way up and around a nearby tree, enjoying the feel of moss beneath her.

Harry shrugged, _“Not really sure. I just felt like it.”_

The iridescent serpent let out a snaky laugh as she moved to the branch directly above him and hung down before coiling into his hair, making him feel weirdly off balance, despite how often she did it.

They carried on absentminded conversation for a few minutes while he lashed the two vines securely to the ends of the log, making sure the knots were tight and firm.

 _“I’m about to climb the tree.”_ Harry informed her, _“Are you staying there?”_

In answer to the question, Elpis disappeared from his head and appeared high in the tree in the same second. Harry tied the vines around him so that the log hung behind him in a kind of backpack and began to haul himself up.

It was a pretty easy climb; the tree was a medium sized oak with lots of small knots to hang on to, and he was only trying to get to the branch about two metres from the ground anyway.

Sitting on the branch, he pulled the vines from around his shoulders and let the log hand down as he tied the free ends to the branch, tugging on them to check they were secure. He climbed down only to find that the log was almost on the ground and that he would have to climb back up and adjust it.

Twenty minutes later, the swing was finally situated correctly, and he sat on it with a happy sigh, a small smile tugging at his lips. The swings at the park had been the best thing of his childhood, and he had been devastated when Dudley and his friends broke them. He guessed that was probably why he liked flying so much; moving through the air and feeling the air around him gave him a sense of freedom which he could never find while at Private Drive.

The gentle motion kept him there for a full hour before Elpis reminded him that it was nearly time for dinner, so the pair slowly made their way back out of the forest, the familiar still wrapped around her master’s neck.

Harry sighed softly as he walked, _“Do you think we’re going to find anything to help Dad?”_

_“I believe that the answer is out there somewhere, Little One. And I don’t believe that you’ll give up until you find it, which is a combination perfect for finding the answer.”_

With a small smile, Harry nodded, not noticing the small water beetle that flitted through the air and landed on his arm.

 _“I hope you’re right, Elpis.”_ He hissed, lifting his hand to stroke the iridescent scales along the top of her head, just how she liked, _“And I hope we find it in time.”_

The snake let out a hiss of agreement before fading into her half visible state, so that Harry knew where she was but no-one else did and winding herself down to his arm.

 _“There’s a bug here.”_ She told him.

 _“Huh, so there is.”_ He carefully picked it up and laid it on the leaf of a nearby bush.

Elpis froze for a moment, _“That bug felt funny.”_

“ _What do you mean?_ ”

“ _Not sure. It reminded me of something, but I can’t think what._ ”

* * *

The next morning when the Daily Prophet arrived, Harry took one look, groaned, and banged his head on the table.

“Why can’t she just leave me alone.” He muttered into the table, scowling as he heard Cedric laughing at him.

“I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.”

“Probably not.” He lifted his head to look over at the other Hogwarts students who were now eyeing him warily, “But now I have to do damage control.”

“It was always going to come out eventually. Besides, anyone who means something to you knows the truth. You’re not a dark wizard, no matter what anyone else thinks.”

Harry turned to smile at Cedric in thanks but caught sight of the confused expressions on his french friends’ faces.

He handed them the paper and explained, “I’m a parselmouth. I’ve been trying to keep it a secret because people tend to think you’re a dark wizard if you can talk to snakes.”

“Maybe in Britain,” Aaron responded, his tone excited, “But in most other countries it is a great privilege to be able to speak to such noble animals. It is a talent I have always wished to have myself.”

“Really?” Harry asked, surprised, “I guess I’m just used to hiding it because I really don’t want anymore press or for people to hate me for no reason.”

“I think that the only reason people hate parselmouths so much is because of You-Know-Who and Salazar Slytherin, both know parselmouths and dark wizards.”

“Probably.” Harry agreed and Aaron nodded.

“This says you have a snake pet, is that true?”

“Does it?” Harry laughed, “Skeeter really did do her homework this time. I suppose you want to meet her?”

“Oui, merci!”

Letting out another laugh at Aaron’s excitement, Harry stuck his hand into his pocket where Elpis was napping and stroked the top of her head to rouse her.

 _“Wake up my sweet.”_ He hissed, smirking at the shocked and awed looks on his friends’ faces, _“Skeeter put an article about you and my being able to speak to you in the newspaper, so now you don’t have to hide anymore. My friend would like to meet you.”_

 _“Stupid nosy human.”_ Elpis huffed angrily.

 _“I hope you’re talking about Skeeter and not me?”_ Harry asked in mock offence and he could almost hear her rolling her eyes, if that were possible for a snake.

_“Of course I will meet your friends. It will be nice to meet some new people.”_

_“I’m sorry that I hid you for so long, but you can meet people more often now.”_ Harry promised her and she teleported from his pocket to his hair, then around his neck and finally down his arm.

“Guys, this is Elpis. My familiar.”

He was met by shocked looks, not just by the people around their table, but the neighbouring tables too. Aaron’s mouth was actually hanging open in shock.

“It that an Alysisian?!”

Harry smirked and asked Cedric, who was nearly rolling on the floor, he was laughing so hard, “Is everyone going to react like that. My family did, my friends did, you did.”

“Yes.” Cedric admitted between laughs, “Everyone is going to react like that.”

Rolling his eyes, Harry turned back to Aaron, “Yes, she is an Alysisian. I found her on my thirteenth birthday, so I’ve had her for a year and a half.”

“How do you keep that a secret?” Aaron asked finally.

“It’s wasn’t as hard as it sounds. We are bonded, so we can communicate telepathically, and she can go invisible to anyone but me.”

“She can?!”

“Yep.” He popped the P happily, “At first, only my friends and close family knew, plus Professor Dumbledore, because he has to informed of all familiars, and Professor McGonagall. But then I told Cedric at the beginning of this year because I knew he would be okay with it and because it was going to be too hard to hide; oh, and Madam Mafalda.”

“Madam Mafalda?!”

“Yeah, she found out by accident. Did you know that parselmouths can talk to some kinds of dragons?”

“No, I did not know that.”

“Neither did I.” Harry laughed, “Until I accidently talked to Iridiana, then the statues that guard her door, in parseltongue without realising it was doing it.”

“That is an impressive and unfortunate mistake, but I am sure Madam Mafalda wouldn’t have minded.” The voice came from Fleur, who was much more friendly with Harry since the Second Task and had been standing just behind him, listening to the story with a smile on her face.

“Nah, she was very nice about it. Could see I was freaking out so promised to keep it a secret.”

He introduced Fleur to Elpis, who seemed to quite like the older blonde girl, before excusing himself.

“Sorry everyone, but I need to contact my PR agent for some damage control. You guys might not mind Elpis, but many people back in Britain will.” He gave a cheery wave and got up to leave the table, feeling a thousand pounds lighter now he didn’t have the weight of that secret on his chest, despite the weight of Elpis coiled up in his hair.

Many people in the hall stared at him as he left - most in wonder but a few in fear (the Hogwarts students) – leaving only a chortling Cedric and Minerva, who was rolling her eyes fondly at his grin, behind him.

As soon as he was alone, Harry pulled out his mirror and called “Ayla!” waiting for Luna to appear in the small piece of glass.

“Hi Harry, hi Elpis.” She greeted them.

“Hey Lu, is everything alright?”

She smiled softly, “Yes apart from the article, I’m assuming that’s what you called me about?”

“Not that I don’t love talking to you, Lu, but in this case, yes. Don’t you think it’s time to introduce the country to Elpis?”

Luna’s face morphed into a slightly cunning smile, “You know what, Harry? I think it is.”

* * *

And so, time passed.

Luna’s article came out in the Quibbler the next day and most people stopped fussing about it - although there were some back at Hogwarts who had to be taught a lesson via bat-bogey hex, according to Ginny – knowing that there was no way he could be a dark wizard and have a Class A Light Creature as a familiar.

Elpis loved the attention and the fact she no longer had to invisible most of the time, and Harry found that no-one really gave him a hard time for it.

He continued to practise his earth elemental (and managed to get the growing time down to three centimetres a second), his quidditch, his guitar. He kept up all his skills, exercises and routines while also continuing his research into the dark mark, which still wasn’t going anywhere, either for him or for his friends back home.

Despite the lack of progress in that department, time passed quickly and before Harry had chance to blink it was time for the Champion’s to find out about the Third Task.

They met in the chamber off the Ballroom where the Weighing of the Wands had taken place, and Lord Delacour – who was the new French Minister for Magic – showed them over to a table that stood in the centre of the room.

“This,” he flicked his wand over the table and a clear cube appeared on it, “Is a scale model of the Third Task. Does anyone have a guess as to what it is?”

“A maze?” Viktor suggested.

Antoine gave him a small smile in congratulation, “Correct. A three-dimensional maze, with the cup at the centre. Think this, but fifty metres cubed, filled with different obstacles – creatures, spells, and such. Any questions?”

“What was the point of being scored for the last two Tasks?” Cassius asked, in his usual quiet way.

“They correlate to when you will be allowed to enter the maze, a thirty second penalty for each point lost. Harry will go first as he has the most points, Viktor will go in thirty seconds after, then Cassius seven and a half minutes after Viktor and Fleur six minutes after that.”

Harry thought that he managed to stay very neutral, despite his daughter looking so annoyed (mostly at herself) for being in last place.

As they were the discussing the finer, but less important details, an invisible Elpis slithered out of Harry’s pocket to go after a strange scent. The same scent that was around the water bug from weeks before.

And there it was, on the floor just behind where the Champion’s were standing in a row. She moved down Harry’s leg towards it, still trying to place what it was the smell reminded of her of.

Just as she realised that it was a similar smell as when Harry was in his Bluetit form, Viktor Krum shifted his weight backwards and the beetle was crushed into the floor. It glowed white for a moment - a pinprick of white that remained unnoticed by everyone else in the room – and disappeared from existence, never to be seen again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, look at that! Rita Skeeter is a problem no longer!  
> Before you ask, I don’t know why I had him build a swing. I know it’s random and I don’t know what I was thinking, but it’s here to stay now.  
> Anyway, I enjoyed writing so much Elpis for this chapter, she hasn’t been around enough recently, and I’ve missed her :(  
> For anyone that’s (understandably) forgotten, they use their Animagus names in the mirrors for extra security and Luna’s Animagus name is Ayla (she’s a red squirrel).


	21. All for you [P3]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coming up with an idea to (try and) save Sev.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s Sunday again!  
> This chapter got pretty much completely written today despite me having lots of other time I could do it in, but here we are :)  
> Anyway, a lot of planning has gone into this chapter, it’s been being set up for a long time now. I’m excited that it’s finally written and uploaded!  
> Enjoy :)

The week following the reveal of the Third Task passed in a blur of training and lessons, so that before Harry knew what was happening, it was the Easter holidays and they were back at Hogwarts for two weeks of, well, not quite peace, but it was home as least.

The first night, Harry couldn’t sleep so he spent his time wandering around the castle, visiting all of his favourite spots.

He started in the hospital wing - checking that no-one was in the bed that was basically his own at this point – next he went to the library, making sure the table they usually sat at was still there, then a quick look in the Great Hall, the Omnis room, down to the kitchens – a quick midnight snack from the elves – and back up to the Room of Requirement.

Finally, he ended up on the astronomy tower, his invisibility cloak wrapped around his shoulders as he stared out over the grounds of his home and up into the jewelled stars that were blinking down on him.

As the dark of the night faded to the beginnings of dawn, Harry cast a warming charm over himself and began to play with the bracelet around his wrist. He was careful not to send any magic through it, not wanting to wake Ginny up, but it gave him a warm feeling inside to know that he could so easily let her know that he was thinking about her.

Bringing his hand up to his throat, he fingered the small golden snitch that his dad had given him just over two years previously, feeling the comforting buzz of magic beneath his fingers. The idea that something was filled with his dad’s magic and could bring him home at a moment’s notice, was the most reassuring thing he could possibly feel.

He could vividly remember the night he had spent with his dad, just a little while after he had given him the snitch necklace, the night that they had truly bonded. Little snapshots came together in his mind.

_“Harry.” Severus whispered carefully into Harry’s ear while still holding him close, “You could never ruin my life. You have made it better by just being in it and I will love and protect you eternally. I promise that to you tonight. You will always have me. Always.”_

The reassurance.

_He rested his chin on the small boy’s head and wrapped his arms tightly around him for a few moments as more tears made tracks down the young face._

_Eventually they pulled apart and climbed back onto the armchair together. Severus conjured up several blankets to wrap around Harry and when he was done, he wiped the tears from under the emerald eyes and proclaimed with a smile,_

_“There, burrito!”_

The realisation that Severus Snape _did_ have a sense of humour after all.

_The pair were on a comfy sofa atop an east facing tower, once again huddled together, and wrapped in blankets._

_They watched in contented silence as the sun put on a brilliant show of colour for them, while sipping on hot drinks (coffee for Severus and hot chocolate for Harry) and listening to the peaceful, early morning bird song._

Smiling softly, Harry pulled his cloak around him as his dad had done and pulled the camera that Luna had given him last summer out of the depth of his pocket, lining it up to take some snaps of the golds and pinks that were working their way across in sky in a beautiful dance.

* * *

The first week of the short two-week break was spent catching up on news and exchanging research. All eight friends were staying for the holidays - which was fairly common as apposed to the mass exodus that happened for the Christmas holidays – so they could spend every day together.

Primarily, they focused on ways that Harry could train and prepare for the Third Task, not having been able to find anything substantial or feasible when it came to the removal of Dark Marks.

This Tournament research found Harry sitting on his bed in the mid-morning of the second Saturday of the holiday, reading a book on the importance of quick reflexes in duelling and absentmindedly playing with a remembrall that he had been gifted a few years previously with one hand.

He was so absorbed that the sudden appearance of Elpis from her hunting trip made him jump in surprise, the remembrall flying out of his hand and onto the floor, ricocheting off the opposite wall before rolling under the bed.

Taking a deep breath, he stroked Elpis’ shimmering scales, “ _Sorry about that, I was a bit engrossed.”_

The Alysisian let out a snaky snicker and wound her way around his neck as he stood from the bed and peered under it to recover the pesky little ball.

He clawed with his hand, trying to reach as far under as possible to grab it, but withdrawing his hand confused as he felt something that definitely wasn’t his remembrall under there.

Pulling his wand out of its holster, he lit it and held it so it would show all of the small gap under the bed. The remembrall was there, but so was a book, which was odd because he usually took good care of his books, especially one that looked as old as this one did.

Remembering that he was, in fact, a wizard, Harry summoned his remembrall and placed it on the bedside table before considering what he was going to say next. Summoning charms were tricky things; you had to be careful with what you said, or you would get multiple objects flying at you all at once.

He couldn’t just say accio book, or he could be attacked by every book on his shelf, which he guessed would hurt – probably a lot. Usually you would say the book title, but as he didn’t know it, he had to be creative.

“Accio book under bed.” He tried, breathing a sigh of relief when the book – and only that book – came flying gently towards him.

He grabbed it and sat back on his heels, checking which book it was and trying to drag up a memory of when he might have dropped it.

_It still wasn’t an acceptable time to get up, so he settled down with one of Helga Hufflepuff’s journals that contained some fascinating details about earth elementals._

_He had been reading for a while when he came across a section that seemed to be about the healing uses of earth elementals, but just as he was about to start reading it, he heard the sounds of Severus moving around in the kitchen – probably getting himself a coffee if the last few years had told Harry anything._

_Jumping out of bed and walking across the room with a happy smile playing at the corners of his lips, he didn’t notice that he had accidentally knocked the book under his bed._

_“Morning, Sev!”_

_“Good Morning.” Severus yawned, “How are you such a morning person.”_

_Harry raised his eyebrows, “Do you actually want me to answer that?”_

This was one of Helga Hufflepuff’s journals then he never got chance to finish.

He opened it to where he had last stopped at with renewed fascination at the concept of the earth elemental having healing properties.

**_I have discovered, quite by accident, that wounds seem to be healed quicker when wrapped in elemental-created plant matter. I had nothing to bandage on of Godric’s many injuries today, so grew some wide leaves to cover the wound and strong vines to hold it in place until we could get back to Hogwarts._ **

**_The wound was a burn and had taken nearly all of the skin of his outer wrist. By the time we had travelled the three hours back to the castle, it was still raw, but most of the skin had grown back._ **

**_Readings show that the new skin has a much higher magical reading than the skin on the rest of his arm. I did not put anything on the burn except the leaves and vines, which suggests that they are the cause of both the healing and magical reading._ **

**_After further experimentation, it would seem that the plants created by magic are pure magic, unlike plants grown the biological way._ **

**_These magically created plants are created from the magic that is pushed directly from the nucleus of the cell, which is where the raw magic is held within all living things. From what I can tell, this magic is unpolluted, so it creates a plant that is so magically pure, it cannot help but spread its magic to its surroundings, purifying as it goes._ **

**_This raw magic is not enough to heal someone, else all living things would heal themselves within moments, but it seems that the combination of pure magic, the mild healing properties of all plants and the excess magic that comes from speeded growth, creates an accelerated healing process._ **

**_I have carried out further experiments, with different injuries and this technique seems to work for all flesh wounds as long as no damage is done to the muscle or bone. This does not work for magically induced injuries. At least, not in its basic state._ **

**_Sal, Ro and Godric intend to experiment with their own elementals and record their findings, to see if they possess any undiscovered powers. We have a plan to see what happens if we combine more than one._ **

Harry read the whole section of the journal then scanned through the rest, checking if there was any more, which there wasn’t, before jumping off his bed and into the library that he and Severus added for the Founder’s books.

It was the last part that had caught his attention, the possible powers that the other elementals might possess. Hufflepuff’s journal had clearly stated that it didn’t work for magically induced injuries, but they hadn’t tried combining them and he hadn’t found any information on what the other three might do.

There might be a way to get rid of a dark mark.

It was a long shot, but it was definitely worth looking. Even if they didn’t find anything, it was still a fascinating discovery.

Quickly, he pulled all of the elemental related journals off the shelves, grouped them all together in an expandable bag and slung it on his shoulder, already rushing through the door as he fished his mirror out of his pocket to call everyone to meet him in the room of requirement.

He arrived first and designed the room how he wanted it - with a large table to put the books and comfy chairs for them to all sit on - then he began to look through the other Hufflepuff books for any other information. He didn’t expect to find much, if anything, else in Helga’s notes, but it was worth a check.

Luna arrived first, closely followed by Hermione, Ginny, Ron, and Neville, with Daphne and Draco not far behind. They all made a start on the journals that corresponded to their houses, as they were the ones that they could each open.

As expecting, Harry didn’t find anything else in Helga’s notes, so he moved onto Rowena’s in aid of Luna, with her being alone looking through the large pile.

Daphne was the first one to find something about the purification properties of water in one of Salazar’s journals, it wasn’t much but Harry made a note of it in a notebook under where he had written the information he had found in Helga’s journal.

**_After prompting from Helga, I have done some research into the magical elemental of water and how it differs from the harvested or conjured water. As Helga found with her magically crafted foliage, magic is fused into the very being of the water as it is manipulated by the mage, giving it purification properties that can displace dark magic from within an object as long as its physical anchor has been destroyed._ **

****

Fire was next, found by Neville, buried deep in one of Godric’s journals from the end of his life, it was even shorter than what Salazar had, but it told them what they wanted to know.

**_Only after much experimentation, have I discovered the purification properties of the magical element of fire. It is capable of destroying a physical anchor of dark magic and, coupled with the magical element of water, is capable of complete purification of an object._ **

Finally came Luna’s discovery of Rowena Ravenclaw’s slightly more cohesive research on air.

**_Hel recently made a great discovery – something I did not think would happen at our time of life – and her, Godric, Sal and myself have been working to develop it. We have found that the magically created elements have properties beyond what have ever been discovered before. The magical element of earth is capable of creating new animal tissue, while fire and water work together in purification and air is the breath of life that can renew partially destroyed magic, once is has been infused with a person’s raw magic through elemental manipulation._ **

**_Together, they can do unforetold things that are just waiting to be discovered; I am sure we have only scratched the tip of the iceberg. We are planning an experiment to combine all four magical elements which we hope will allow for the full purification of a human body._ **

****

“That was the last entry any of them made.” Explained Luna, “I think that they died soon after.”

Harry nodded with a frown, trying to squash down the excitement that was bubbling in his stomach, “It looks like they were trying to attempt what we want to achieve.”

“But we have no way of knowing if they succeed.” Hermione pointed out.

“Or if they even got around to carried out the experiment at all, or even what the exact experiment was.” Added Draco.

Harry sighed, slumping slightly, “But this is the closest we’ve got to a solution yet. It’s worth looking into, don’t you think?”

“Oh, yes.” Draco agreed quickly, “Definitely, but its going to take a lot of working out.”

“Well,” Hermione bit her bottom lip, starting to work it out in her brain, “We have a way to get rid of a physical anchor – which is the mark itself - a way to get rid of the dark magic – which is the connection between the mark and the core – a way to heal the tissue that is burnt away and a way to recover the raw magic that is ripped out. I think that covers everything, so we just have to piece it together.”

“You’re saying that we should burn off his skin then wrap it in a leaf?” Ron asked, disbelieving.

“Effectively, yeah.” Hermione admitted, looking a little uncomfortable.

“My main concern is that we have no way of knowing if this needs to link up to his magic, so we don’t know if we can knock him out to do it, or if he has to be awake. If he’s unconscious, then the intent that we’re always told is so important will not be there but if he’s awake then this will obviously be painful.” Added in Harry.

“Could we numb the area?” Neville asked and everyone considered it for a moment.

“That would stop pain of the fire, but he would still be able to feel the magic in the rest of his body. It could work.” Daphne summarised cautiously.

“So, I burn off the skin where the dark mark is, then what do I do with the water? Let it seep into the wound? I’m not sure that would go into his cells.”

“It doesn’t need to go into his cells, because the dark magic isn’t in his cells; if it were in his cells then he wouldn’t be capable of performing light magic because his whole being would be compromised. We need to get the purifying water to his core, which I guess could go through the wound, that’s where the magic was tethered so that would get it all, right?” Hermione bit her lip again.

“Have him drink some of the water as well, that way it gets close to his core both ways, through the wound and through the nearest organ.” Luna suggested and everyone considered it for a moment.

“I think you’re right Luna,” Harry nodded, “Better to do it both ways and hope one of them works then do the wrong one. Right, so I burn it off,” he tried not to look green at that prospect, “Then diffuse water down the wound while he also drinks of the magically infused water, yes?”

“Yes.” Draco agreed, “Then comes the healing, the earth for the physical and air for the magical.”

“Which would we have to do first?” Ginny asked.

“The magical,” Daphne responded, “The physical wound gives you an opening to the magical one.”

“Yes, you’re right Daph. I do the air in the same way as the water, through the wound and through his lungs, which should be close enough to his core. Then I wrap the wound in – are there any leaves that would good specifically for burns, Nev?”

“Well, Aloe Vera is the best, it’s even used by muggles, but it’s the gel-like substance inside that helps, so that won’t be much good.” He thought about it for a moment, “But Plantain should work, it’s mostly used for milder burns, but we are exaggerating the effects anyway. The leaves are wide enough that you should be able to wrap them around the arm if they have enough. Yeah, I think that should work.”

“Perfect. Any chance you could get a hold of some? So that I can learn the genetic and magical makeup.”

“Sure thing. It’s not used as much in the magical world, but its common so there should be some out on the ground. I can get some now.”

“Great, Nev thanks.”

Neville rose, Ginny and Ron with him, while Harry, Hermione, Draco, Daphne, and Luna stayed.

“I guess I can tie the leaves up with the vines I already know how to create.” Harry pointed out and everyone nodded.

“Here.” Daphne held out the notes she had been taking of the process they outlined, “Professor Snape won’t let us do anything without the proper planning.”

“True.” Harry tried to smile but got caught up in what might go wrong if they tried this. There was only so much planning they could do, and they couldn’t do a trial run. There was only a pin prick of evidence in an otherwise dark room.

Hermione caught him before he could spiral, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Harry,” she said gently to get his attention as she offered him a soft smile, “Don’t go down there, not right now. There’s one thing being prepared and there’s another overthinking.”

“You’re right.” He nodded, “We should show Dad this.”

He pulled his mirror out of his pocket and called, “Severus Snape.” Waiting for the dark hair to appear in the small square of glass.

“Hey, Dad.” He greeted him, “Are you busy?”

“Hello, Harry. I’m making some lesson plans, why? Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine, don’t panic. But do you think you could come up to the Room of Requirement as soon as possible? We need to talk to you.”

Severus looked concerned but nodded, his face disappearing and Harry taking a deep breath to ease his anticipation.

Half an hour later, the Potions Master was sat at the at table with the group of friends (minus those still out looking for Plantain), nodding slowly, having had the idea explained to him and read all the notes himself.

“We need to take this to the Headmaster.” He said, not wanting to get his hopes up.

Harry and Draco exchanged an exited look, “The other three off still collecting Plantain, I thought I should start to learn the makeup because that will take me a little while, even if we decide not to use this.”

Severus nodded again, “We will go and see if the Headmaster is free now. Madam Pomfrey should be there too, and Professor McGonagall will probably appreciate an invitation. The three foragers can meet us there.”

Luna gathered up the four books that they had found the information in and skipped out of the room ahead of the others, while they stacked the remaining books into the expendable back and followed behind, Harry calling Ginny as they walked to let them know where to meet.

They stopped off at both Minerva’s office and the hospital wing on the way to the Headmaster’s office, offering no other explanation than that they would want to hear this.

Dumbledore took one look at the amount of people trying to come into his office and began conjuring chairs, not even bothering to ask until they were all settled.

As so the idea was explained again.

Just as Severus had done, Dumbledore nodded his head slowly before looking at first Severus then Harry.

“Are you willing to try this?”

“Yes.” Harry responded, “This is the best idea we’ve come up with. It has the most chance of working.”

“I agree. I want to stay with my family if I can.”

“You understand that if one little thing goes wrong then he could die?” Dumbledore seriously asked Harry, who nodded, his head low.

“But it could work.”

“It could.” The old wizard paused for a moment, “How long will it take for you to be able to produce the Plantain leaves?”

“A few days.” Harry shrugged, “I should be good to go by Friday.”

“Friday then. Ten o’clock in the private room of the hospital wing if that’s alright?” he asked the hospital matron, who nodded in answer.

“Friday, ten o’clock.” Harry repeated, convincing himself that it would work as he left the room, closely followed by his friends.

Minerva turned to his friends and colleges as the door closed behind them, “He will blame himself if it doesn’t work, you do know that?”

“Yes.” Severus bowed his head, “And if I thought I had another option I would go with it. But if the Mark kills me and he thought that he could have done something about it – worse still, if he is the one to kill Riddle - then he will blame himself anyway.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s the question. How much do I want Harry to be traumatised?  
> Would I really dangle this solution in front of Harry, in front of you guys, only to snatch it away again?  
> I guess you’ll just have to wait and find out ;)
> 
> On another note, there were a lot of elements in this chapter, and I hope that they all made sense!  
> I have put a lot of thought into this elemental stuff (no, this isn’t the only reason he has these powers, others will make themselves clear in time, but this was a big reason) and I don’t think – but correct me if I’m wrong – that I’ve ever seen someone (attempt to) get rid a Dark Mark this way.  
> The flashbacks were new too, so let me know what you think of them. And I don’t know what the first little bit of this chapter is, but it just happened, and I think it’s cute, so I left it in!  
> By the way, if anyone is wondering, the flashback of him dropping the book is from Chapter 4 of this work, and the flashbacks from the first little bit are from way back in Chapter 23 of I don’t know you yet (the first work in the series).


	22. All for you [P4]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will Sev live or die? Plus a conversation with Dumbledore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry I’m a little late, I sacrificed posting last night to facetime my mum, who I haven’t seen in two weeks.  
> Well, this is it, the chapter to find out where Severus lives or dies! You might hate me a bit by the end of this chapter.  
> A WARNING that parts of this chapter are a little graphic, Harry does burn Sev’s arm open, so there is that. The graphic bits are sandwiched between a mini line like this:  
> \-----  
> Now a disclaimer that I don’t actually know what would happen if you burnt your arm that badly, so my description might be off.  
> Anyway, enjoy!

Before anyone even had time to blink, it was Friday and Harry was stood in the private room of the hospital wing with his Dad, Professor Dumbledore, and Madam Pomfrey.

All eight friends had trooped down together, but they hadn’t been allowed to stay, Madam Pomfrey not wanting to overcrowd the room and add to the tension. Instead, they went to the Omnis room and became emotional support for Draco, who was looking even paler than normal.

Trying to not let his thoughts spiral, Harry watched as Madam Pomfrey spread a special numbing cream that would numb the whole arm not just the skin, on Severus with practised ease that relaxed him slightly.

The Potions Master confirmed that he couldn’t feel anything while Harry stared at the ugly scar that was the Dark Mark. It looked like a muggle tattoo except the skin it was on was raised slightly and it looked faded; it wasn’t a pure black, more of a charcoal grey.

He analysed the design: a skull with a snake coming from its mouth.

Not for the first time, he absentmindedly cursed Tom Riddle and his part in giving snakes a bad name, poor misunderstood creatures.

Suddenly, he was pulled out of his thoughts by the realisation that everyone was looking at him as he stared at the mark.

“Sorry.” He murmured, blushing slightly, and looking away.

Severus gave him a tight smile and squeezed his arm with the hand that he could actually move.

“I’d like to say you never have to see this symbol again, but chances are you will. I’m sorry about that. We’re doing this so that you never have to see this symbol on my again.”

Nodding determinedly, Harry stepped forwards and concentrated on the arm that was laid out on the table before him. He closed his eyes for a minute, holding out his hand and focusing on his magic, feeling the strum beneath his fingers as he opened his eyes again.

\-----

Oh so carefully, he let a small amount of fire form along the pale skin, looking up to check that his Dad couldn’t feel it, which he couldn’t, so he let out a little more, watching it flicker across the skin in an extremely unsettling dance.

The Mark began to writhe as it was eaten by the flames, seeming to scream out inaudibly as it did.

Severus tensed a little, “I can feel a small pulling on my core.”

Harry grimaced - knowing that he was going to have to sever the connection the Mark had with the core - but nodded, reaching out his left hand as his right toned back the amount of flame eating at the arm.

It was a bit messy, and Harry had to avoid gagging as he caught sight of the melted skin and nerves with a strange lack of blood.

Deciding that he would ask Madam Pomfrey about that later, then pushing the thought from his mind, he held the tiny simmering flames with his left hand while beginning to pull water from the air with his right.

Forming small droplets, he pushed them into the skin, which was giving off an odd, tingly scent of lighting singed wood, grimacing as Dad tensed in pain again.

After a minute or so of pushing tiny water droplets into the wound, he stopped, gesturing for Severus to open his mouth as he grouped together a bigger bubble of water and tipped it down his throat, letting the flames grow a little bigger over the arm to ensure that the anchor was completely destroyed.

Immediately, Severus began to withe in pain, but Harry knew it hadn’t worked yet, so he gathered more water and tipped in down the constricting throat again, after Madam Pomfrey spelled his jaw open.

Still it didn’t work, Harry could feel the dark magic clinging on for all it had.

Desperately, he shook Severus’ good shoulder and spoke in his ear, “Dad, Dad. Intent, remember? You have to want to expel it. Come on, Dad.”

The Potions Master groaned slightly, still tensed in intense pain, but brow furrowed in intense concentration, eyes closed.

Suddenly, something released, and Harry could feel the dark magic dispersing until it became nothing, unable to hold any power with it. Not wanting the damage to be any greater than it had to be, he diffused the flames into the air and concentrated on blowing a light breeze into the deep wound.

He could feel the hum of magic strengthening just slightly, so he kept going, pushing it into the mangled mess of flesh with one hand and down his throat with the other.

\-----

After five minutes, Severus stopped writhing, after ten, his brow cleared and he opened his eyes, barely holding back a gag as he looked down at his arm.

“I’m guessing that scar cream won’t work on this?” his voice was croaky, and Harry couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.

Not paying attention to Madam Pomphrey’s reply, Harry concentrated on creating wide leaves of Plantain, something he had managed to perfect in the few days since they had come up with this plan, after working on it pretty much none stop.

He laid the leaves so that they covered the arm, then began to grow strong but thin vines, wrapping them around securely but not too tightly so that everything would stay in place.

When he had finished, he stepped back and Madam Pomfrey hurried forwards to check on her patient, waving her wan around where his core was.

“Magical exhaustion. But your core is already recovering, I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up bigger than it was before, the Mark was smothering it somewhat.” She frowned, waving her wand over his forearm, “The tissue is staring to knit back together but it’s going to take a long time, we’ll have to redo the dressing in a few hours. It’s definitely going to scar, and you might have some trouble with the nerves.”

Harry looked panicked but Severus shot him a reassuring, if tired, smile, “It’s not a problem, Harry, it’s not like it’s my brewing arm. You did an amazing job.”

With one last smile, his eyes fluttered closed and Dumbledore levitated his sleeping body into a nearby bed.

With a tired sigh, Harry flopped into a chair, not even trying to wave away the wand that was hovering over him.

“I suggest you also take a nap, Mr Potter,” Madam Pomfrey told him, “You don’t have any core exhaustion, which is shocking in itself, but you do have mental exhaustion, focusing for so long with so much pressure. Go and sleep, I will wake you in a few hours when Severus needs his dressings re-doing.”

Harry nodded, not bothering to hold back his yawn, and flopped onto the nearest bed, fast asleep within seconds.

Three hours later, Harry and Madam Pomfrey were back by Severus’ side, ready to reapply his dressings despite him being still asleep.

The Healer deftly cut the vines and peeled back the leaves, gasping as she did so.

“What is it? Is everything okay?” Harry asked, panicked.

“I never expected the healing to be this quick.”

\------

He peered forwards and saw that, although none of the skin was back yet, everything below was. There were a few blood vessels that were only separated from the air by their own walls so they could be seen pulsing with the blood which were fascinating in a creepy kind of way and Harry couldn’t quite stop watching.

\-------

“Why was there so little blood?”

“The heat cauterized the vessels, which stopped the blood flow. If we had left it like that for too long then the hand would have died from lack of blood, but it’s all good now.”

Shaking his head, he began to grow knew leaves for the wound while Madam Pomfrey finished off her checks.

“His core is nearly back to normal and it should be only another few hours before this is healed. The numbing cream will be wearing off very soon but I’m not sure that a pain potion will react well with this different magic.”

Harry considered it for a moment, “I’m not sure we have a choice. And I don’t think it will react too badly, his magic wants to heal him, and the pain potion will help with that, so I’m pretty sure it will be alright.”

“Humph. I’m not sure I like how many ‘don’t think’s and ‘pretty sure’s were in that assessment, Mr Potter.”

* * *

When Harry went back to Beauxbatons three days later, Severus was fully recovered apart from some stiffness and lack of sensitivity in his arm, as well as quite severe scarring, but he assured Harry that everything has worked perfectly, and ‘a bit of scaring’ was worth it to stay with him.

Back to normal after the holidays – or as normal as it could be while he wasn’t at Hogwarts – Harry began to focus heavily on training for the Third Task.

He had finished most of his school work the year, finding that it was much quicker when you could do most of the spells on your first try, so he had more time on his hands, despite Professor McGonagall giving him some extra projects so he ‘wouldn’t forget everything’.

Instead, he increased the amount of exercise he was doing in an effort to improve his stamina and agility, while setting up a training room in one of the lesser-used Defence rooms that Professor Bernard lent to him.

Many people were surprised by his acquaintance with the gruff professor, who – despite being a brilliant defence teacher – was known for keeping himself to himself, but most just shrugged and left them to it.

He helped Harry to get hold of some training dummies that could be set to nine different levels (starting at stationary and ending with ‘how are you doing this right now’) so that he could practise hitting moving stationary, then moving targets as quickly and accurately as possible, then working on his dodging.

It was essentially the start of duelling training, except he was expecting to go against magical creatures, rather than vicious wizards – that was to come in a little while, he was sure.

Professor Bernard sometimes watched him, but it was more often Cedric, who occasionally tried his wand against the dummies himself, but he didn’t possess the natural skill that Harry seemed to.

Harry didn’t tell him that it was mostly from years of having to duck and dodge while trying to get away from his cousin, because he didn’t want the pity, instead showing him how to twist himself move easily, in a way that wouldn’t pull the muscles in his back.

Besides the dummies, Harry read up on as many magical creatures as he could possibly find and how to get past them, knowing that Lord Delacour – who was now planning the Tasks – would have found some interesting things.

Hermione and Draco helped with that, sending him notes despite already starting to revise for end of year exams, as Cedric was doing. Harry had been excused from end of year exams so he could focus on the Tournament, and, before he knew it, a month had flown by and the Third Task was upon him.

Harry’s friends and family arrived the day before the Task, with an addition of Dumbledore as a special guest and Yasmin to cheer on Cassius. More of Fleur’s extended family was there, as were Viktor’s, plus Ivo, who would be staying until the students went home a week after the Third Task.

It was a bit of a chaotic time, with so many people coming and going: Ministry workers to bring in and set up the obstacles, other workers to check the safety of the contestants and audience, Minister Delacour and his entourage making last minute arrangements and the families of the contestants being taken on guided tours and casual walks around the grounds.

Not long after everyone was settled, Madam Mafalda sent a message for Harry to come to her office. The timing was a little unusual, so Harry was cautious, but he had been having weekly afternoon teas with the cheerful headmistress, so he knew her pretty well that this point.

Despite being fairly young, she had had a fascinating life, and Harry never got old of hearing stories about it; what with duels, dragons, and dark wizards, she had quite a resumé!

In return, Harry had told her a little of Hogwarts, a place she had never actually been, and some of his adventures there.

He thought about some of what they had talked about as he walked, wondering if he could learn to hover like she had (she had confirmed that she did indeed use air elemental magic to do this) or if being an Animagus Bluetit was enough.

Soon enough, he was at the door guarded by the dragons Evangeline and Asher, and he lowered his head in a quick bow.

“ _Greetings, I believe the Headmistress is expecting me?_ ” he asked politely, and the gold stone creatures offered him a snaky hiss in greeting.

“ _Indeed, Little One_.” The dragon named Evangeline agreed while Asher added, “ _Mistress has said you are welcome any time._ ”

Harry nodded his head in thanks as he slipped past the now untwined dragons and knocked on the firm door and waited to be allowed entry while asking himself why it was that all dragons and snakes were compelled to call him ‘Little One’ – he wasn’t that small!

His train of thought was broken when he stepped into the double room and saw that there was another in the room with the French Headmistress, one Albus Dumbledore.

“Madam? Sir?” Harry asked, a little confused.

“Albus asked for a place to talk to you that wouldn’t risk anyone hearing, so I offered my office.” She have him a small, and a little reassuring, smile, “And now you are both here, I’ll leave you to it.”

Stepping closer and resting a hand on his shoulder she spoke in a lower voice, “And good luck for tomorrow Harry, I might not get another opportunity to say it. You’ve done well so far, very well; you could win this.”

She offered his shoulder a small squeeze before disappearing through a gap that appeared in a section of the bookcase, leaving only Harry and the Hogwarts Headmaster in her office.

“Sir? Is everything alright?” they hadn’t had a proper conversation since the one on Christmas day.

“Yes, Harry. I just wanted to talk to you, and I didn’t want anything to happen like last time.” He usured Harry to sit in the armchair opposite the one to which he himself sat down in, “I know it’s been a few months and you would probably rather forget about it, but I find it important for you to know that it wasn’t me who reveal your past home situation to the press.”

“I don’t think it was you.” Harry said, electing a surprised look from the older wizard.

“You don’t? I thought that it was the only logical conclusion.”

Harry shrugged, “It might be, but…”

He was about to continue when Elpis gave a hiss from his pocket.

_“I know who it was.”_

_“Who?”_

_“That green women. She smelt like Azul. She got squished at the meeting for the Third Task.”_

_“Rita Skeeter, an Animagus? The newspapers have mentioned that she disappeared.”_ He thought back to the beetle that he found on his robes months ago, just before it came out about him being a parseltongue, _“She was that Water Beetle!”_

_“Yes, her.”_

Harry turned back to Dumbledore, who was looking at him questioningly.

“Apparently the mole was Rita Skeeter who was using her beetle Animagus form, presumably illegal, to get all those stories. But according to Elpis she is dead now, squished in her Animagus form a few months ago.”

“Dead? Who killed her?”

 _“You do not need to know, old man. Only know that it was not you, Harry and the person who did it did not know what they had done.”_ Elpis hissed, slightly scornful.

“She won’t say, only that it was an accident. I respect why she doesn’t want us to know.”

Dumbledore looked like he wanted to object, but Harry spoke first.

“Anyway, _thank you Elpis_ , but as I was saying, you leaking the information may be the most logical conclusion, but it isn’t always the most logical explanation that is the right one. Even if I didn’t trust that it was you, it doesn’t make sense for you to leak that information, there is no scenario in which it will make you look good, so there is no point.”

Dumbledore stared at him for a moment then chuckled slightly, “Sometimes I think we sort too soon.”

Raising an eyebrow, Harry replied, “Are you saying that I shouldn’t be in Gryffindor?”

“Not as such, just saying that you could have been in Slytherin.”

“You’re right, Headmaster, the Hat did say I would do well in Slytherin, but you misunderstand the situation, the same as most people. The Hat puts you with a group of people who share the same values as each other, in the hopes that they will be friends, but that does not mean that they do not share values from other houses. Does Hermione not value knowledge? Is Neville not loyal? Is Draco not brave? The problem is not the Sorting but the houses themselves, creating divides that could be otherwise avoided. But why change something that works? People ask, but do we not have house prejudice? Gryffindors are reckless, Hufflepuffs are nobodies, Ravenclaws are know-it-alls and Slytherins are evil. The people who are saying the system works are feeding in the prejudice.”

He kept his voice even and leant back in his chair as he finished, watching for Dumbledore’s reaction. There was a flicker of regret there as he spoke.

“You are wise beyond you’re years. They say it is the old who are wise, but it is the truly the young.”

“It is neither. It is based on your individual experiences.” Harry countered, “An old man is wise because he has gone through experiences that make him wise, but if a younger man goes through the same experiences in a shorter time, then he becomes wise at a younger age. My experiences have given me perception.”

Guilt flickered in the eyes that stared at him, “Then I apologise for forcing those experiences on you and I thank you for taking the time to teach a foolish old man a lesson.”

Harry gave no response other than a nod, allowing the Headmaster to continue.

“But I know that an apology only goes so far, and that is why I asked you here today. To apologise, yes, but also to tell you what I am doing and plan to do about my mistakes.”

A raised eyebrow was all he got in response.

“I am an old man Harry, even by wizard standards I am old, and I have three full time jobs. No one else was willing take on any of the roles I have, no one else is trusted with the roles that I have and so I am stretched thin, thinner still in my old age. There is a reason for this reliance; when had just left Hogwarts, I made a friend we had similar ideals, I grew to love him in a short time, but he had a nasty streak to him, he wanted to rule the world, reveal our world to muggles and make them serve us like elves. It took me a long time to see this side of him, well, I could see it really, but I pretended I couldn’t, and it cost me.”

“What?” Harry asked, “What did it cost you?” it was a personal question, but he needed to know how much had been at stake.

“My sister.” He whispered; Harry could see the pain in his eyes and the weariness in his body.

“It cost me my sister, then my brother abandoned me because I deserved no better. I distanced myself from the man I loved, finally admitting to myself what he was, but he began to get the power that he desired without me, he gathered followers, an army, and began causing chaos and bloodshed. Still I kept my distance, hoping that someone else would sort it, that I wouldn’t have to fight my love. But eventually I had to face him, he was getting too strong, too close to blowing open the Statue of Secrecy, and I knew that I was the only one who could stop him.”

Harry was starting to see where he was going with this but wasn’t quite sure how it related to their conversation.

“We duelled, I won, he is still locked away in the very prison that he built for his prisoners. And this man was?”

“Gellert Grindelwald.”

Dumbledore nodded; his pain evident, “Gellert Grindelwald. One of the hardest things you can do is locking up someone you love, but the only things harder still is burying a beloved sister, and I didn’t want anyone else to have to go through that, he had to be stopped.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes until the older wizard shook himself out of his thoughts.

“After his power had been taken, people began to rely on me more and more, giving me control over their children, their laws, and then the laws of the whole magical world. At first, I loved it, I can’t deny that I didn’t want power, but I had it legally and without bloodshed, it was the peaceful way to the top that Gellert couldn’t see.

“After a while it became too much, but I couldn’t step down from any one of my roles, people depended on me too much. As soon as I even thought about it, there was a new problem that everyone wanted me to solve, a debate to decide, a conflict to resolve, I couldn’t – can’t – get away. And so, I am stretched too thin, I cannot do anything well enough because I haven’t enough time. It is an old cliché that with great power comes great responsibility, but it is true.”

Harry considered him for a moment, then leant forwards in his chair, “Another old cliché is that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. You were so close to being in absolute power, that you could only see the end result and the quickest path to get there because you just wanted it to be over. Even as you were trying to get rid of the power you were using it in the wrong way, for yourself, to get yourself out of a job you didn’t want to do. I don’t think I am wrong is saying that you saw me as an easy way out, a quick defeat of Riddle.”

As he sat back, Dumbledore bowed his head again, nodding slowly, defeatedly.

“You do not see that the very thing you did to yourself, you did to me. You tried to mould me into the perfect saviour of the wizarding world, someone who wielded the power to kill the darkest wizard Britain has seen for centuries, I hold a certain power of the public without even wanting it. I could take your place, after you had trained me in your ways, and you could step down. But I have seen what power can do to people, I have seen my Uncle use his power over a great many people, especially me, why would I ever want that power?”

“The people who do not want power often use it the best.”

“That’s as maybe, but you wanted the power to start with, you excepted it too easily without thinking it through and now you are here. Did George Washington not step down after two terms for the very reason of not wanting American to become dependant on one person in the same way that a portion of the wizarding world is dependent on you? The question is, what are you going to do about it? What happens to the world is something happens to you?”

Dumbledore let out a heavy sigh, “I withdraw from my position as Headmaster, that is the easiest to pass on, I give the position to Minerva, she will either take it or fill it as she’s fit. I trust her with that, I have made the mistake of not trusting her before and it cost you your childhood.”

He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, thinking, “I resign as Supreme Mugwump, there are other strong witches and wizards who could take my place and I can have a hand in deciding which. I will remain Chief Warlock until the political climate gets better, I do not trust anyone else to remain neutral.”

Harry barely contained a snort and a sarcastic comment, instead replying, “You are possible the least neutral person in that court, Sir. You are firmly on the side of the light, the families such as Greengrass and Zabini are neutral.”

“They are dark.”

Letting out a small laugh, Harry shook his head, “For all your talk of redemption, you are very happy to put all Slytherins into the evil box. Just because they don’t want to be light, doesn’t make them dark. Someone could have many reasons to not follow the light, are they being blackmailed? Do they disagree with some of the things the light are fighting for? Do they dislike how much power you have? Do you think this disagreement is a petty thing that has developed too far?”

“Then I would like to hear your opinion, who would you have to replace me?”

“I do not know the members of the Wizengamot well enough, but you want someone who is strong, who will stand up for what they believe in while still understanding the other side of the argument, someone who will bring the unity this country needs instead of alienating the dark faction.”

Dumbledore nodded slowly, clearly thinking it through.

After a few minutes, he spoke again, “So that is my plan for my political position, as it comes for my making right the mess I have made of the war, I have more to discus with you. I have kept many things from you, in the hopes to save you from it, despite ultimately knowing that you cannot escape it. All I have succeeded in doing is slowing down the progress of defeated Voldemort once and for all and putting you through many traumatic situations at the same time, but that changes soon. I say soon, because I wish to wait, only until the Tournament is over and you are back at Hogwarts. You have my promise that I will then tell you what I should have told you when you asked me at the end of your first year.”

Harry considered him for a moment, checking that he was speaking genuinely.

“When I get back then.” He agreed eventually, and Dumbledore seemed to sag with relief.

“I had better go, dinner is starting, and everyone will wonder where I am.”

“Of course, of course, thank you for talking with me, Harry, and good luck for the Task tomorrow.”

With a nod, Harry walked from the room, considering the conversation he had just had.

“I can see where he is coming from, but that doesn’t mean he had the right to keep anything from me, especially after I asked.” Harry told Ginny.

They had been on a journey through the wood after tea, Ginny trotting along as Candy while Harry flitted as Azul and Elpis teleported from tree to tree beside her, but now they were setting on his swing, rocking gently as Harry told his girlfriend some of the conversation from earlier.

“But Hogwarts without Dumbledore.” Ginny shook her head, “The Wizengamot without Dumbledore for that matter. It’s just always been like that.”

“And that’s the problem.” Harry sighed, “It’s been like that for too long and now the country is addicted. He seems to have it in his head that I’m the only one who can take the spotlight off him. But at least he is trying to make it better. Even if it took my years with the Dursleys to bring this change about, it has started to happen now.”

“What you went through was not worth it to save the country or whatever it is that you have in your head.”

Harry let out a slightly depreciative laugh, “But it was, Ginny. In the same way that Dad would have died if it meant Riddle dying, I would sacrifice my childhood or more again and again so that other people would not grow up like I did.”

“I would not want you to do that.” Ginny pulled him into a quick kiss.

“But if you had to choose between me and everyone else then what would you choose? Me, or you family, your friends, the whole country. I’m not actually asking you to decide, because that’s not fair on you, just trying to get you to understand what I am saying.”

“I would find a way to save you all.” Ginny mumbled into his shoulder and Harry let out a laugh, more genuine this time, though there was still a hint of strain.

“That I do not doubt. You would take down the Death Eaters one bat-bogey hex at a time if you had to.”

“And don’t you forget it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, look at that, Sev is still alive! You didn’t really think I’d kill him off, did you? So don’t worry, you don’t have to carry out any of the threats I got for even suggesting that Sev might die :D  
> For anyone who was wondering (probably no one) the settings of the dummies are stationary, slow, medium, fast, stationary attack, slow attack, medium attack, fast attack and ‘how are you even doing this right now’.  
> Random side note, ‘except he was expecting’ is the hardest thing ever to type.  
> Moving on! I hope you like my version of Dumbledore, obviously it isn’t Fantastic Beast compliant, but I like the idea that he wanted the power and got it before he realised just what it would do to him, but by then it was too late. What do you’ll think of it?  
> Next chapter/possibly two chapters, will be the Third Task where everything goes down so I’ll be having fun writing that this week :)


	23. Down the darkest alleys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Third - and final - Task of the Triwizard Tournament.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t have much to say about this chapter, it’s pretty much all action (which I’m not sure how well I write, but never mind).  
> That said, enjoy. Or maybe you won’t I don’t know.

Harry was pacing backwards and forwards in the Champion’s tent, waiting for the Third Task to start. All four Champions were there, each looking as nervous as each other, not talking but not quite ignoring each other either.

There were in there for about half an hour, when Minister Delacour stepped through the flap, greeting them with a short bow.

“We’re ready to start now, if you’d like to come out for the announcements?”

They all nodded and began to wish each other luck, taking advantage of the little time they had in private before being under spotlight.

Hugs and handshakes given, the quartet followed the Minister out of their tent and out to in front of the stands.

Harry couldn’t help but gulp at the huge glass cube that loomed before him. The walls within seemed to be made of a odd almost see-through substance that seemed to be flexing slightly and allowed them to see right to the centre of the maze, where the cup sat on a pedestal.

But the cup seemed to be the only thing visible; although Harry could see some movement, everything was a blur, so he couldn’t tell what or where exactly the obstacles were.

Clearly, they had designed it so that the audience could see where the Champions were in relation to the cup (and get the details through the mirrors), but so that the Champions couldn’t see what was coming up.

Tearing his eyes away from the cube, Harry looked up at the stands, finding his family sat in the same seats that they had been for the last two Tasks - not far from the bottom so they could reach him quickly at the end, but high enough that they had a good view - surrounded by his Beauxbatons friends and the families of his fellow Champions.

As for the last Task, Yasmin was there, sandwiched between Draco and Luna, but unlike last time, the three (plus a few others next to them) were clutching a long banner that was clearly the working of Luna Lovegood.

On one end there was a snake, beautifully painted with detailed green scales, that was slithering slightly and flicking its tongue out, while the other end held a lion with a vivid mane, who was roaring every few seconds and swishing its tail (although Harry didn’t think it looked like a very savage roar).

Between the two was a carefully painted Hogwarts crest with the words ‘Harry and Cassius’ above it and ‘Hogwarts Champions’ bellow.

It was very Luna; quirky, thoughtful, and amazing.

He smiled as the five of them lined up outside the entrance to the maze, feeling his nerves lessen just slightly.

“Welcome to the third and final Task of the Triwizard Tournament! As you can see by the big cube behind me, this Task is a maze. The first Champion to touch the cup in the centre of the maze will be crowned the winner of the Triwizard Tournament. As always, the mirrors will show us – here at Beauxbatons as well as at Hogwarts and Durmstrang – a closer view of all the Champions.”

The Minister then turned to the four Champions, “No magic can cross the outer boarder of the maze, but there is a witch or wizard positioned on a platform at the outer of each of the five levels, who can be summoned either by the shooting of red sparks, or by the shouting of ‘Triwiz’ if you loose you wand. If you find another Champion and want to get help for them, shoot off purple sparks.”

Harry looked up at the thin walk area around each of the levels what was inside the glass walls but didn’t seem to be part of the maze. He could see Professor Bernard winking at him from the centre level, and he recognised a witch and a wizard from the bottom two levels as other Professors from the school, while the other two seemed to be Ministry personnel.

Minister Delacour confirmed that they all knew what they were doing, he announced who would being going in and when.

“Hogwarts Champion Mr Harry Potter will be the first to go in, followed Durmstrang Champion Viktor Krum, then the second Hogwarts Champion Cassius Warrington, and finally Beauxbatons Champion Fleur Delacour. Good luck to all four Champions and may the best win! Without further ado, Harry Potter, on the cannon blast if you please.”

Harry pulled his wand from its holster and took a deep breath, taking a final glance towards his family before taking off into the entrance with the cannon blast.

He knew that whatever was going to happen, would happen while he was in this maze.

But whoever it was that was trying to kill him by entering him in this stupid tournament hadn’t killed him yet, and he wasn’t about to let them now.

He turned right as soon as he entered, remembering a conversation between his Aunt and Cousin from years ago when they had gone to a theme park (without him, of course) and had gone through a maze there. His Aunt had given Dudley the advice of always going right – he wasn’t sure how that would work in a 3D maze, but he thought he may as well try it.

After walking forwards for a few metres, then around a corner, the noise of the crowd fell away to an unnerving silence. Apparently, the walls had silencing charms in them as well.

Lifting a hand to the wall, he studied it for a second. He could see the shadow-like movement of something on the other side - almost like the ripples of water – but it was indistinct to the point where it was pointless to even try and work out what was there.

Rounding another corner, he came across a ladder and climbed it, pausing to check for danger with his wand pointing around before pulling himself onto the next level up.

He carried on moving, going around two more corners, and just starting to be unnerved at the lack of obstacles when the ground started to move beneath him. Not a shaking or rumbling, like an earthquake, but individual pieces of the ground rising and tripping him up, like trying to walk on a wave.

Just before he lost his balance, he cast a quick “Immobulus!” which stopped the ground in position, so all that he had to do now was not trip over the uneven terrain.

Once passed the couple of metres of ground, and around another corner, Harry took a deep breath and checked his watch. Fleur would be entering the maze in about two minutes, which meant that Cassius and Viktor were already in there.

Keeping moving, he quickly came across another ladder, but this one had a vicious looking Centaur standing guard in front of it. Knowing that trying to fight it would be a suicide mission, Harry bowed his head respectfully, lowering his wand slightly.

“Nobel Centaur, I am not foolhardy enough to think that I could get past you by force, what is your price for me to climb that ladder you are guarding without opposition?”

“Wizard.” The Centaur nodded back, his hand resting on a long sword, “You seem to have more logic than most of your type, knowing that you could not get past a Warrior Centaur, so maybe you will be able to pay my price, a riddle, or logic puzzle if you will.”

Without waiting for a response, he began to speak, “Lily is a Lilypad in a small pond. Lily doubles her size each day, On the twentieth day she covers the whole pond. On what day was Lily half the size of the pond?”

Harry only had to think about it for a moment, immediately seeing the trap that you could get caught in, “If she doubles in size every day, and she covers the whole pond on day twenty, then she will be half the size of the pond on day nineteen.” He replied, allowing himself a small smile as the Centaur began to nod slowly.

“Thank you, victorious Warrior. May I inquire you name?”

“It is Igneous, little Foal. And yours?” the Centaur replied as he moved out of the way of the ladder.

“Harry. I thank you, Warrior Igneous and wish you well.”

“Foal Harry, you are young to be in this silly game, are you not?”

“I am, it was not my choice.” Harry was already halfway up the ladder.

“And there I was thinking that the Wizarding race might be getting better, clearly you are an exception, Foal Harry.”

“Thank you, Warrior Igneous. And I quite agree with you.”

And with that, they separated.

Now he was on the right level for the centre of the maze, but he had only come across two obstacles, so he knew it wasn’t going to be that easy.

Just as he was thinking this, the walls of the maze began to close around him, tightening together quickly.

Not knowing a spell that could stop this, he began to run, but the walls were faster.

He turned sideways and did a weird run like that for the last metre or so, being caught out at the last second when his left shoulder got sandwiched between the two walls. Wrenching it free, he rolled it slightly, silently wondering what it was with him and injuring his shoulders during this Tournament.

A bit more walking and he heard a female scream a little way ahead; he ran, lifting his wand higher when the air went cold.

He rounded a final corner and found Fleur clutching her head as she tried to cast the Patronus charm, barely producing enough mist to keep the Thing away from her.

Taking a deep breath, Harry bellowed, “Expecto Patronum!” watching as the doe exploded from his wand and galloped towards the hooded dementor, which floated backwards, allowing Harry to grab Fleur by the wrist and pull her around a few corners.

“Are you alright?” he asked, casting a warming charm on her, and wishing he had some chocolate.

Fleur nodded, trying to get her breathing under control, “Thank you. I don’t know why I couldn’t cast it; I can cast a corporeal Patronus.”

“What is it?” Harry asked, curious.

“A Veela.”

That wasn’t a surprise.

“Have you ever tried to cast it in front of a dementor?”

She shook her head, “We don’t get them in France, I only learnt it because I was curious as to what form it would take.”

“It’s much harder to cast in front of a dementor, because you are faced by your fears as you are trying to do it, so its much harder to come up with the happy memory.”

“You can do it.”

“I learnt to do it in front of a dementor because they affect me quite badly, and I was around them quite a bit at one point. It’s a long story. Are you alright to carry on now?”

Fleur nodded and pulled him in for a quick hug and kiss on the cheek before moving off to the left while Harry went to the right.

He came across a ladder going down, but ignored it, rounding a corner to be greeted by a cloud of midnight blue misty gas that covered the path for the next few metres.

Not being quite sure what it was, but not having any way of finding out, Harry cast a bubble-head charm and walked forwards cautiously. Nothing seemed to happen, so took another few steps.

There was nothing, until he reached the middle of the mist, at which point every step he took forwards seemed to send him backwards. After two steps backwards, he stopped and then tried to move forwards again, seeing if the same would happen – it did.

Confused, he tried to step backwards, which seemed to work – until he found himself out of the mist, but on the same side he had started.

Shaking his head, he tried again, this time only going forwards, even if it looked and felt like he was going backwards. Sure enough, as soon as he stepped out of the side that look like it was the wrong side, everything righted itself and it became clear that he was actually past the mist.

Deciding not to try and work out what had just happened, Harry dissolved the bubble-head charm and began to move forwards again.

He came across another ladder and climbed it, but immediately came face to face with a great golden creature that could only be a Sphinx. Her lion paws were crossed as she flecked her wings and flicked her tail idly, her bright eyes fixed on him as he appeared.

Checking for another way and finding none, Harry bowed to her, “Greetings Fair Lady, what price have you for my safe passage through?” he asked, because Sphinxes had a soft spot for those who spoke in rhyme.

“The fastest way to find what you seek is past me,” she blinked at him, “And the price I take is a riddle. Answer it correctly, and I let you past, decide to not answer, and I let you go, answer incorrectly and I attack.”

“That is fair, Great Lady. May I hear the riddle and decide not to answer?”

“Yes. It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, cannot be heard, and cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills, and empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after, ends life, and kills laughter. What is it?”

Harry kept his wand grasped in his hand as his thought hard, being careful not to say anything allowed that could be classed as an answer.

Inaudibly, he muttered to himself, “It can’t be seen, sound maybe? Or thoughts? Can’t be felt, can’t be heard. Obviously not. It lies behind the stars, well stars create light, hmm. Under hills, you can’t go under hills, it’s just earth. Empty holes it fills, I feel like we’re just coming back to light again, but you can see light. Wait, wait, dark. You can’t see, feel, hear, or smell it. If it’s behind the star, which is light, then there is no light. There is no light under the ground or in empty holes. I’m not too sure about the rest, but it seems to it.”

He looked back up at the Sphinx, deciding to risk it. He shuffled towards the hole, making plans to jump down it as quickly as he could if he were wrong.

“The dark?” he asked hesitantly.

The creature blinked for a moment before nodding slowly and rising, stepping to the side in a fluid movement.

“May you find what you are looking for, young wizard.”

“Thank you, Great Lady.”

Around a few more corners and something moved before him. Raising his wand, he stepped forwards and was horrified to see Ginny’s mangled body lying on the ground, drenched in blood and deathly still.

Just as he was rushing towards her, there was a crack and his body disappeared, being replaced by the body of Severus, in the same condition.

Realising what it was but feeling the blood fall from his face all the same, Harry lifted his wand and shouted “Bombarda!” not bothering to find something funny – because how could you make that funny – instead just blowing the thing up.

He stepped over the small crater in the floor with a shudder and found himself face to face with himself.

A reflection of himself – there was a mirror.

He eyed it cautiously, but there didn’t seem to be a difference between the real him and the one in the mirror, unlike the Mirror of Erised. Deciding to just move on, he turned a corner but came face to face with another mirror, and another, and another, until he was just surrounded by mirrors.

Having heard about mirror mazes at the same time he learnt to always go right around a maze, Harry knew what he was dealing with (at least, in the muggle sense) but that didn’t mean it wasn’t disconcerting to see so many of him all at once.

After wandering around for a few minutes, bouncing off a couple of walls, he found a ladder, which led him to the top level and another part of the mirror maze, which eventually led him to another ladder, this time going down.

Scrambling down, he was just finding his way our of the last of the mirrors, when he heard of shout from around the corner.

“Hey, what are you doing?!”

It sounded like Cassius - which was confirmed when rounded the corner – but he didn’t expect to see was Cassius on the floor, wandless, and Viktor baring down on him with a strange look in his eye.

Acting quickly, Harry shouted, “Stupefy!” and Viktor fell down as a dead-weight.

“I don’t think he’s going to be joining in again. What happened?”

“I came around the corner and he attacked me. I think he was imperiod.”

Harry didn’t ask how Cassius knew what it looked like to be imperiod, instead guessing that it had something to do with his childhood as he watched the older teenager retrieve his wand and send up purple sparks.

Glaring into the mirror above Cassius’ head that he knew everyone was looking at, he asked, “Are you alright to go on together? There doesn’t seem to be another direction.”

With a nod, they fell into step side by side, not talking but both keeping their wands raised.

After only a minute or so, they came across another Centaur, this one guarding a ladder going down.

Noticing the sword, making this as a Warrior Centaur, Harry bowed his head, encouraging Cassius to do the same.

“Nobel Warrior Centaur, we are not foolhardy enough to think that we could get past you by force, what is your price for us to climb that ladder you are guarding without opposition?” well, it worked the first time, so why change it?

“Then you are hope for wizard kind, boy.” The Centaur sneered a little, “Most of you think that brute force will work against a Warrior race. You will pay the price of a riddle each to pass me. You first.” He gestured to Harry, “What is it that given one, you'll have either two or none?”

After thinking for a minute or two and becoming increasing embarrassed that he couldn’t think of the answer, it hit him and he looked back at the Centaur, “A choice.”

“That is correct.” He looked a little surprised, then turned to Cassius, “Now you. I am not found on any ground, but always in the air; though charged each cloud with thunder loud, you cannot find me there. Now, if from France you choose to dance your way just into Spain, I there am seen, and near the queen, in hail, in mist, and rain. What am I?”

This riddle was much longer, but Cassius only had to think for a minute before answering, “The letter I.”

“Correct. You may pass.” He stepped to the side, fingering the hilt of his sword lovingly.

“Thank you, noble Warrior Centaur.”

Harry bowed his head again, slightly put out by how the Centaur was acting despite his respectful attitude. Clearly the humans he had met before hadn’t been very nice – not that he was surprised by that.

The pair climbed down the ladder and then came face to face with the centre of the maze and the Triwizard cup. Cassius broke into a jog, focused solely on the cup, with Harry not fair behind him.

Harry saw movement off to the side and looked to see a snake with three heads, each of which was topped with blood red spikes and letting off frightened but angry hisses.

“Cassius!” he gasped, pulled him to a halt and pushing him behind Harry. The older teenager went to raise his wand, but Harry pushed it down, crouching low and motioned for him to do the same.

The Runespoor had also stopped, and Harry could hear the heads arguing with each other.

“ _Please, we are not a threat. I know you are afraid; I am too, please do not attack. I will make sure you get to safety_.”

“ _He lies_.” The right-hand head hissed angrily, while the middle head dreamily replied, “ _But he could take us somewhere nice and warm, to build a nest_.”

“ _It would be nice to have somewhere to go, I think we should take the risk_.” The more reasonable left-hand head replied, calmly.

“ _I will_.” Harry promised, “ _I will take you somewhere safe. Where were you before?_ ”

_“With a man that kept us in a small glass box.”_

_“He was trying to kill us.”_

_“He was doing the best he could to for us.”_

_“He should have set us free; he had no right to keep us.”_

The argument was already getting on Harry’s nerves, _“What are your names?”_

 _“Pazienza.”_ Replied the reasonable head, while the dreamy head told him, _“Avivit.”_ And the negative head said, _“Nerezza.”_

_“Okay, you can come with me, there is a nice forest for you to find a home in. My familiar can help you to find a good place.”_

Pazienza glanced at Avivit, who was nodding eagerly, and Nerezza, who was shaking her head.

_“We will come with you.”_

Clearly Pazienza was the leader, as the other two followed her instruction, curling their length around his waist and tucking themselves into his robes.

“They’re coming with me.” Harry said by way of explanation, and Cassius shrugged, looking towards the cup and back to him.

“The Great Hall, Yasmin, Krum, Runespoor.”

Harry was confused for a moment, Cassius seemed to just be listing things. Then he realised what was happening; these were all the things that he had done for the Slytherin - or saved him from - without getting repaid.

It wasn’t that he wanted to be repaid, but that was how Cassius saw it, and he couldn’t take the cup for himself because of that debt, but he also didn’t want to sacrifice the win. Knowing that he wouldn’t step down, Harry nodded.

“Together.”

They reached out and touched the cup, and Harry was too distracted by the arguing of the Runespoor to realise what that meant until it was too late.

They landed in a graveyard, which was shadowy, dark, and ominous despite it being only a little past midday.

Clearly, _this_ was the aim of entering him in the Tournament, because wherever they were, it was not where it was supposed to be.

There was a hoarse shout of, “Kill the spare.”

But it was only when the cry of ‘Avada Kedavra’ came and the accompanying flash of green light flew out from the shadows, hitting Cassius full in the chest that he realised what he had done by grabbing onto that cup.

He had signed his – and by extension Cassius’ – death warrant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh, please don’t hate me. I never kill people just for the sake of it, there is a reason, it’s a subtle reason that might not come into the open for a while, but there IS a reason!  
> Also, don’t lose interest just yet, because the next chapter is going to be a dramatic one, with some huge differences from cannon.  
> If people don’t understand why Cassius did what he did, I’ll try to explain it. In cannon, Cedric (kinda) repays the stuff that Harry does for him, but Cassius never did, and I don’t think that he would be okay with just taking the cup for himself after that. ‘The Great Hall’ was Harry standing up for him after his name came out of the goblet, ‘Yasmin’ was the fact that he brought her to cheer him on, just so he would have someone, and then the others are fairly obvious, he saved him from Krum and from the Runespoor, who was about to attack him out of fear.  
> For anyone who is interested, I based the Runespoor of the Deadly Shadow who is the tree headed dragon from How to Train Your Dragon (the books) who’s three heads are call Patience, Innocence and Arrogance. With Pazienza being a name meaning patience, Avivit meaning Innocence and Nerezza meaning darkness because I couldn’t find a good name for Arrogance (you don’t really want to call your child that, do you).  
> Not from HTTYD, Pazienza has calming qualities in her breath (to help with focus and stop arguments), Avivit has hallucinogenic qualities to hers (because she’s the dreamer and because I can) and Nerezza has acidic qualities to her (to hurt people because she is untrusting). This means nothing to the story, and they aren’t going to be in this story past the next chapter – as least I have no plan for them to be – it was just fun to come up with.  
> On a side note, you’re going to hate me even more after the next chapter.


	24. Down the darkest alleys [P2]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the graveyard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I’m a bit late, my sister decided that she would ‘sit with my while I was writing’ yesterday, by which she meant that she was going to talk to me, and this chapter was a bit intense to be writing while distracted. I’d complain, but I do the same thing to her :D  
> Anyway, for this chapter, all you need is a quick reminder of Elpis’ powers. She and Harry can talk telepathically, she can turn invisible to everyone but him and there is a third one that I’m pretty sure I haven’t actually talked about, hence this explanation.   
> Elpis can teleport other snakes with her. She can only teleport snakes though, no easily getting places like Dumbledore and Fawkes. That is relevant to this chapter.

Harry watched, frozen in place, as Cassius crumbled to the ground, his eyes glassy. He couldn’t even dodge the stunner that came towards him.

As it happened, it hit the exact place where the Runespoor was hidden, so it didn’t actually knock him out, but the wave of magic from the spell brought him out of his shock and he fell to the ground as if the spell had worked on him, in an effort to give himself more time to find out what was happening and give him the element of surprise.

He had to repress a shudder at the sound of the same high-pitched cackle that he heard in his dreams about the night his parents were murdered. It ripped through the air, sending shocks down his back.

“Prepare the ritual, Wormtail.” It was the same voice from the vision he had a year ago; it was still imprinted on his brain, the picture of the short man who had betrayed his parents writhing on the floor in agony.

“Y-yes, m-my Lord.”

There was a muttered spell and he felt himself levitated into the air, then had to try not to struggle when his wand was pulled from his hand and roped wound around his wrists, binding him securely to cold stone.

A wad a musty smelling cloth was shoved into his mouth and then a rustle in the grass signalled the person – presumably Wormtail – walking away from him.

Once the sound was far enough away, Harry dared to crack open an eye, desperately needing to know what kind of situation he was in.

That was, if the fact that he was tied to what appeared to be a tomb stone with the person who betrayed his parents and a weird form of the darkest wizard in a good few centuries didn’t give it away. He was in a _very_ bad situation.

The unnatural half-light made everything shadowy, masking perfectly normal objects into terrifying beasts and casting a gloom that just seemed to make his situation all the more hopeless.

A few metres in front of him there was a stone plinth and next to the stone plinth was a bundle of cloth. He couldn’t see either Wormtail or Riddle, but the person who had bound him sounded like he had gone over the brow of the hill, towards where he could see the top of a derelict manor sticking up.

There didn’t seem to be anyone around, it was mostly field around the graveyard, so there wasn’t much hope of getting help from any passer-by, not that a muggle would be a match for a wizard; especially one who had already demonstrated his ability and willingness to kill.

The thought of Cassius made him want to throw up, so he focused on the object next to him. The Triwizard Cup.

It was obviously a portkey, so if he could get back to it, maybe it would send him back. Wasn’t it supposed to send him to the outside of the maze after he touched it anyway? Maybe it would still do that.

Suddenly, he remembered the snitch necklace that was hung around his neck – it was a portkey! It would send him to Hogwarts instead of Beauxbatons, but that was much better than being where he was currently.

Focusing, he pushed his magic into the golden charm – nothing happened. It was touching his skin, even if he weren’t holding it in his hand, so it should work, Severus had told him that it would work like that, but nothing seemed to be happening.

After a few more tries, Harry finally realised what the problem was, something that his dad had warned him about before. Anti-portkey wards, they must have been up around the graveyard.

Panic settled on him when he realised that the cup probably wouldn’t work either. Or would it? It had let him in, so why wouldn’t it let him out. He knew that portkeys could be keyed into wards, his was keyed into the Hogwarts wards.

Frowning slightly, he concluded that it was a risk he would just have to take, he couldn’t think of another way out.

He was sure he would be heard if he tried to call an elf, and then he would be stunned for real, there just wasn’t a way out.

Beginning to panic, he reached out to his familiar, who was with Hermione for the duration of the Task. At first, he thought it wasn’t going to work, that she wasn’t going to come, but just as Wormtail appeared over the brow of the hill, dragging a huge black cauldron behind him, he felt a weight on his right shoulder.

 ** _‘Elpis!’_** he thought, panicking as he closed his eyes and slumped back against the stone to look like he was still knocked out, **_‘I need you to tell everyone was is happening, where I am.’_**

 ** _‘And where is that?’_** Elpis thought back.

**_‘I don’t know. But just go back, try to get Dad to understand. Take this Runespoor, make sure she has a nice place in the forest. She is stunned at the moment, just make sure Dad knows what’s happened.’_ **

**_‘But...’_** The snake tried to argue.

 ** _‘Please Elpis, just go.’_** He was really desperate now, **_‘Go, make sure they know, then come back. I’m not sure what I’m going to do to get out, but I’ll think of something. Stay safe.’_**

 ** _‘This is a stupid plan.’_** And she was gone, taking the still unconscious Runespoor with her.

“I-it is ready m-my Lord.” Pettigrew had been fumbling around with the cauldron while Harry had been talking to Elpis.

“Then begin, Wormtail.” The high voice commanded coldly.

“Y-yes, my Lord.”

The grass shuffled and the bonds around him were tested from security before the magic of a Renovate spell washed over him. He pretended to wake up, fluttering his eyelids open before testing the bonds around. His eyes alighted on the short man crouched before him and he scowled.

“You.” He spat, “You cowardly traitor. What is this?”

“This,” the high voice replied, “Is a plan. A little desperate, I’ll admit, but all I had was this useless rat, so I did what I could with the few options I had.”

It was only now that Harry realised that the voice was actually coming from the bundle of material. He didn’t have to fake the partly disgusted, partly panicked look that crossed his face.

“Wormtail, bring me closer.” The bundle ordered, and Pettigrew visible repressed a shudder as he lifted it and stepped back towards Harry, the repulsion clear on his face.

As soon as he glanced at what was in the bundle, Harry could understand the look of repulsion; he had to hold back a gag as he looked down at what seemed to be a rotting baby.

“Harry Potter. See what you have done to me? See what I have become?”

“You should be dead. The curse should have killed you.”

“No, that killing curse should have killed _you_ , that was it’s purpose, but it failed me, the first time it had ever done so, and I have been reduced to _this_.” He hissed some of the words, almost slipping into parseltongue as he did so, “Even so, I have cheated death and I will now rise to power again. I will have more power than I did before, and I will rule the world!”

If he had been less panicked, Harry might have rolled his eyes – it didn’t take a genius to work out that world domination was what Riddle, wrinkled babe though he was then, ultimately wanted – instead he glare, knowing that he couldn’t do anything in his current position.

“Wormtail, begin the ritual.” The voice demanded, and Pettigrew backed away from Harry with a shudder.

He lifted the tiny, mangled body from the bundle of cloth and dropping it into the cauldron that he had set on to simmer a few minutes previously and seemed to be dancing with sparks and light. There was a hiss then a thud as it hit the bottom.

Shaking, Pettigrew lifted his wand and muttered the words “B-bone of the father, unknowingly given, will renew your son.”

A fine trickle of white dust rose as the stone beneath Harry cracked open, drifting softly into the concoction, and turning it a vivid blue as sparks continued to fly.

A dagger rose from Wormtail’s robes as he began to sob, words barely audible, “F-flesh of a s-servant, w-willingly given, you will r-revive you m-master.” And he brought the silver metal down across his wrist with a scream.

There was panting, and a sinking splash, but Harry had squeezed his eyes tight shut as soon as he realised what was about to happen.

Cracking an eye open, he saw that the potion was now a burning red, and Pettigrew had wrapped the stump of his wrist in cloth, although blood still trickled from it.

Still panting, he advanced on Harry, muttering the words as he came.

“B-blood of an enemy, f-forcibly taken, y-you will r-resurrect your foe.”

Not being able to do anything to stop it, Harry could only watch as the short man took the dagger and cut into his arm so that a trickle of blood fell into the vial he had produced from his robes.

The blood was poured into the potion, which turned a blinding white as Pettigrew fell backwards panting, gasping, and sobbing.

A sudden showering of sparks came, and a figure rose from the depths of the cauldron. A tall, skeletal, unnatural looking figure with an alienesk head and sickly white skin.

“Robe me.” The high but cruel voice commanded, and Pettigrew obeyed, still sobbing.

Once he was wrapped in dark robes and had his wand securely in his long fingers, he turned his scarlet eyes to focus purely on Harry.

“Harry Potter. We meet again, and this time shall be the last. I am risen now, and I shall call my faithful servants to me.”

He sneered down at the sobbing mess that was Peter Pettigrew and wrenched the arm that was not bleeding towards him, pressing his wand into the Dark Mark that was now solid black and writhing.

Swirls of black appeared all over the graveyard, announcing the arrival of Riddle’s faithful followers.

As he began to explain what had happened to him over the last fourteen years, then question them - demanding answers as to why none of them had come to find him - Harry began trying to work the gag from his mouth.

“I found you, Master! I alone was faithful!” Pettigrew cried suddenly from where he was still sobbing on the ground.

Riddle laughed, a cold high laugh, “You, Wormtail, did not come back out of loyalty, but out of fear! I have no use for a rat who could turn on me at any moment, no. But you gave me back my body, and for that I will end your suffering.”

“Thank you, Master, thank you.”

With a sneering smile, Riddle raised his wand and spoke clearly, “Avada Kedavra.”

For the second time that day, the graveyard was bathed in sickly green light, and Harry bit to his lip to subdue the urge to throw up.

_“Nagini, you shall have a feast tonight.”_

_“Thank you, thank you, Master. The flesh shall be soft and the blood warm.”_

At that, Harry couldn’t hold back a gag, and all attention turned to him again.

“So Potter, you have made a valiant effort over the years - stopping my attempt to get the Philosopher’s stone, destroying my diary, driving my servant to run for his life – with a bit of training you might have been a great warrior for my cause.”

Finally managing to work the gag from his mouth, Harry spat, “And why would I ever work for you?”

“Why? Because I am going to rule the world.”

“By murder! You murdered my parents; I would never work for the person who killed my parents. And you don’t even care who you kill, that boy there is Cassius Warrington, son of a man who is no doubt here today, someone who you would have tried to recruit had he not just been in your way. You don’t care for the lives of others; they mean nothing to you.”

Riddle narrowed scarlet eyes and snapped, “Warrington.”

One of the masked men stepped forwards, “Yes, my Lord?”

“Is that boy your son?”

“It is, my Lord.” Warrington nodded, then sneered, “But he would not have been a good follower, I tried many ways to get him to see the correct beliefs, but he would not be persuaded.”

“See.” Riddle waved a dismissive hand, “He was worthless, a spare.”

Breathing heavily at the methods clearly implied by Warrington Sr, Harry replied, “But you didn’t know that when you had him killed.”

Narrowing his eyes, then waving his hand dismissively again, Riddle stated calmly, “Well, there is no point in quibbling, as you are going to die soon anyway. I wish I could let you live and change your mind to my cause, but I cannot, you must die so that I can rule. However,” he raised a non-existent eyebrow, “I will make it relatively quick and painless _if_ you can prove yourself in a duel.”

He flicked his wand and the bindings that held Harry to the gravestone fell away, another flick and his wand flew towards him from where it was lying next to the cauldron. He caught it easily and shook his limbs out, much to the amusement of the gathered Death Eaters.

Riddle silenced them with a wave of his hand and turned to Harry, stopping about four metres away from him, “Now, I trust you know how to start a duel?”

Heart thumping in his chest, Harry bowed his head slightly, thinking that this would be the only time he _ever_ bowed to this crazy wizard.

“Very good.” Riddle mocked, bowed his head back, “And now we duel.”

He sent a few casual stunners across the gap, which Harry dodged easily, thankful for the training that he had been doing, knowing full well that he would have been hit already without it.

Narrowing his eyes fractionally, Riddle sent more stunners out in a formation that made them much harder to dodge, but Harry managed it. Riddle looked surprised as he sent a variety of hexes in a steady stream, making Harry jump all around to avoid them.

Five minutes later and Riddle was almost starting to look impressed at the fact that this fourteen-year-old had managed to dodge every spell that had been sent his way, that was until the jeering of the watching Death Eaters set a scowl to his face and he shouted, “You’re supposed to send spells back. Crucio.”

A red light that was familiar from his visions flew towards him and connected with his shoulder, which was already throbbing dully from where he had trapped it in the maze and from the awkward twisting that he was being forced to do to avoid being hit by one of the nasty hexes.

Pain exploded from it, hitting every fibre of his being as he was thrown to the floor and lay their writhing, a scream ripping from his throat.

Just as suddenly as it had come, the sharp pain stopped, although a dull ache was left all over his body.

Pulling himself up, amidst the jeers of the Death Eaters, he glanced around. The Triwizard cup was only a few metres away, with Cassius’ lifeless body lying next to it.

He dived towards it, grabbing the cup with one had and Cassius’ robes with the other, only noticing the long fingers gripping into his own robes when it was too late.

The familiar pull lasted for a few seconds before they all slammed into the ground, Harry quickly pulling himself up and moving away, turning to face the person who had come with him.

One Tom Marvolo Riddle.

He didn’t even notice the pin-drop silence in the crowd and the sound of blood thumped in his ears and he lifted his wand to the wizard opposite him for the first time.

Just as Riddle shouted, “Avada Kedavra!”, he shouted, “Stupefy!”

A red spell met a green spell and they held there, a stream of light that was sending vibrations and electrical shocks through the length of Harry’s arm. Then the green and red somehow combined to create a pure gold, which sparked and crackled, creating a domed cage of golden electricity around them.

The shuddering in his wand increased as beads of light formed along the beam of light, moving slowly towards him along its length.

Somehow knowing instinctively that it would end in disaster for him if these beads touched his wand, Harry pushed his magic through his wand, holding on tighter and gripping his wand with both hands, watching as the beads slowed and began to change direction towards Riddle’s wand.

After a few seconds, the beads connected with the far wand, erupting screams of pain from it. A ghostly figure was forced out of the tip, a short man with only one hand – Peter Pettigrew. He glowered slightly at Riddle, but bowed his head to Harry, demonstrating his hope for victory.

More screams, and another figure erupted from the wand tip:Cassius. Harry’s vision swam as he caught the grave smile from the ghostly figure – the most genuine smile he had ever seen from the older boy.

“Thank you, Harry. You have done more for me than you know, thank you.” His was echoey and felt like it was far away, but it gave Harry a small comfort.

An old man appeared, then a middle-aged woman.

“You fight him, young man.” The man advised and the woman added, “Don’t break the connection now!”

Harry nodded, concentrating harder as a final two figures appeared from the wand. A woman with smoky hair falling around her face and a man with messy hair that was sticking up in all directions.

“Mum?” he asked, his voice croaky, “Dad?”

“Yes love, it’s us.” His mum assured him, her voice sounding as far away as the others had, although the smile on her face with very real.

“We love you son, but you need to break the connection.” His dad told him, “Dumbledore is just waiting for the connection to break then he will take over, he will protect you. Just get down on the floor out of the way.”

The ghostly figures of his parents moved to either side of him as he nodded.

“Break the connect now, son, we’ll see you when it’s your time.”

“We love you, Harry.”

With a last look at his parents, Harry set is jaw and pulled his wand away, stepping to the side and crouching down in a single movement, then watching as Albus Dumbledore charged in wand raised and began to shoot spells at Riddle.

_One hour earlier._

Dumbledore sat in his place in the crowd for the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament, just behind the group from Hogwarts, watching as the two Hogwarts Champion’s grabbed the Cup together.

He was proud to be ending his time of Hogwarts Headmaster with such a victory for them, especially one made from such a disaster. Clearly this plot wasn’t very thought out, as Harry died at all, he had won.

That was, until the pair didn’t reappear in front of the judges table like they were suppose it; in fact, they didn’t reappear anywhere at all, they just vanished.

Scanning his eyes down to the judges, he saw exchanged panicked glances and horrified expressions – clearly this was not planned it all.

Not wanting to force himself into the situation if he had nothing else to add, he scanned the Hogwarts group below him for any sign of this being planned, but everyone was still on their feet from where they had been applauding when the cup had been grabbed.

Young Hermione Granger was stood just in front of him, a scared expression on her face as she tried to calm the familiar who was hissing agitatedly in her arms – Harry’s familiar.

Wherever Harry was, he must have been either very scared or in pain to get that reaction from his familiar.

Suddenly, the snake was gone, and Hermione was moving along the line to tell Severus what had happened. He watched as the two made their way down to where the judges were in a group, the two remaining Champions hovering nearby.

Ten minutes later, the snake appeared back in Hermione’s arms, clutching what looked to be three unmoving snakes with her. Much agitated hissing (not that he could hear it from where he was) and gesticulation later, and Hermione pointed her wand at the three snakes, shooting what appeared to be a reviving spell at them.

They began to move, and then all four snakes disappeared, only for Elpis to reappear less than a minute later, continuing with her hissing and gesticulating, clearly trying to get them to understand what she was trying to tell them.

Not being able to sit there any longer, Dumbledore made his way out of the stands towards the huddled group of judges, noticing Karkaroff slinking out of the stands and away to the Durmstrang hovercraft as he went.

The next half hour was spent with an increasingly snarly (understandably so) Severus Snape and a usually calm Minerva McGonagall (also understandably) beginning to loose her mind to worry, not to mention the reactions of Harry’s other family and friends, plus the Ministry personnel who had put so much effort into stopping anything like this from happening.

Despite his own weariness and worry, Dumbledore worked to keep everyone together and focused, making a plan for any possible explanation of what had happened, fuelled by Elpis’ ability to agree or disagree with a statement, despite her obvious agitation at not being able to get the message she wanted through.

Dumbledore was watching her intently as she repeatedly motioned to Madam Mafalda and back to herself again, while the other judges and Ministry personnel were trying to determine how two of their Champion’s could have been kidnapped despite all the checks.

Realisation hit him and he muttered, “Iridiana. You can talk to her and she can send it to her Madam Mafalda as her bonded.”

The snake nodded and Dumbledore moved forwards to the knot of frustrated people, pausing for only a moment to try and get the Beauxbatons Headmistress’ attention, but catching what they were saying as he did.

“Richardson took the cup to the centre of the maze on my command, we checked it before it went in and there was nothing wrong with it.” The Minister stated.

“Then Richardson must have changed it, he’s the only one who went near it.” Growled Professor Bernard.

“No, it can’t have been. I would trust Richardson with my life, I do every day, it was not him. But then he left and the only other that went in where the five manning the levels. It was not one of my personnel, I vetted them personally, which leaves only the three Beauxbatons staff members.”

Piercing gazes were thrown at all three, but before any further accusations could be made, gasps were heard in accompaniment with a swirl of magic in the centre of the lawn.

Dread rose from the pit of Dumbledore’s stomach as he saw the swirling black robes he knew so well, lessening only slightly when he saw that out of the two figures with him, one at least was moving, scrambling away in desperation.

Just as he was about to rush forwards to help, maybe fight an old enemy for the last time, two spells connected and turned gold, forming an electrical looking dome of pure magic around the two that crackled dangerously.

Eyes open wide in shock, Dumbledore remembered a letter that he had been sent from Ollivander the wand maker, not far off five years ago.

Matching wand cores - Priori Incantatem.

He sighed wearily, mentally adding this to the list of things that he needed to talk to Harry about as soon as they were out of this mess.

As long as they did get out of this mess, he reminded himself, quickly stepping forwards to create a barrier around the golden dome to protect the crowd with only him on the inside. He made it as strong as he could, ignoring the tug on his exhausted core.

Peering carefully, he could see the explosions of shadowy figures from Voldemort’s wand. Peter Pettigrew – that meant that Voldemort was in touch with his Death Eaters, having got rid of his servant – Cassius Warrington – that was a truly sad loss, he had hoped to save young Warrington from his parents.

An old man that he didn’t recognise – could have just been a muggle that came across him at the wrong time, Voldemort wouldn’t just obliviate when killing would do – Bertha Jorkins – well that would explain why she had been missing for so long.

Then James and Lilly, oh what they had sacrificed for the world they lived in, for their son.

He felt tears in his wrinkled eyes as he watched the interaction between father, mother, and son. They were clearly telling Harry what he needed to do, so Dumbledore readied his wand to charge in as soon as the dome had dissipated.

Flexing his tired muscles as he started to action, he wondered just how long he would be able to keep fighting for.

Spells flew so fast that Harry was mesmerised; there was a fluidity to what he was witnessing, an exchange of magic that could only be accomplished after years of practise.

It was only when an unknown hex came so close that he had to roll out of the way that he remembered this was a fight, not art, and he really needed to get out of the way.

If he turned his back then he wouldn’t be able to see any spells coming, so he crawled backwards until he came up against a hard barrier; a transparent ward dome that was protecting the crowd from the fight before them – stray curses that could prove fatal for anyone who was touched by one.

Harry was glad that everyone was protected, but it did mean that he couldn’t get out, which was a bit of a problem. Stepping forwards slightly so he could dodge if needed, he looked around the edge of the dome for a weak point despite knowing that there wouldn’t be any, because Dumbledore had clearly created it he could feel it in the magic of the dome.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, there was a slight disturbance in the opposite side of dome, a little way behind Dumbledore, and a figure slipped through, the gap sealing behind them.

Recognising it as Professor Bernard, Harry breathed a sigh of relief, that was until he saw that the old French wizard was pointing his wand at Dumbledore, not Riddle.

Something the crazed Dark Lord had said about planting a Death Eater in the school flashed across his mind and he threw himself forwards and he screamed “Sir! Watch out!”

But it was too late, two sickly green spells were shot towards Dumbledore and he was caught in the crosshairs, unable to dodge both.

Dumbledore seemed to see this and, in the split second he had, turned to face Harry, giving a weary nod of thanks and a tired but reassuring smile before both beams of light hit him, one in the chest and the other in the back of his shoulder.

The wizened wizard crumpled like paper and a wave of gold magic flew from him, setting the crisscrossed lines of the ward dome on fire and knocking down everyone within it as it went. Harry, being the lightest, flew the furthest, hitting the now flaming barrier full in the back, pulling a piercing scream of pain from his lips.

The last thing he was Dumbledore lying, moving, on the floor and a triumphantly laughing Riddle picking himself up and disappearing in a swirl of dark before everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh, please don’t hate me. We’ve been through this before, I only ever kill people for a reason. And the reason was that it gives other characters a chance to be more in charge, and it challenges the wizarding world because they have suddenly lost the rock which they hide behind.  
> Plus, Riddle may not have killed Harry, and there will be no covering up that he is back, but he did start off his new reign with a big win – he killed the person who was the biggest threat to him (other than possibly Harry) which is obviously a big deal.  
> I’ve actually been planning on killing Dumbledore here from pretty much the minute I began to expand this story beyond just a Severitus (which is why the story doesn’t flow very well in second and third year, it wasn’t supposed to be carried on) and I’ve been teasing my friend about it for quite a while now. I would only tell her that I was killing someone, not who – so hi Yasmin!  
> Back to my original point, please don’t hate me.   
> Also, the conversation I skipped over between Riddle and the Death Eaters was basically the same as canon, Death Eaters trying not to get punished and making up excuses for themselves, with Riddle throwing around a few crucios.


	25. Down the darkest alleys [P3]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry I’m a bit late, this chapter did not want to be written.  
> Also, I’ve just discovered Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and I’m a little obsessed so that might have something to do with it. Either way, sorry :D  
> Anyways, enjoy!

When Harry opened his eyes, it was to find the blinding white light of the hospital wing blinking back at him. Scrunching his eyes shut, he tried to piece together what had happened to dump him in the hospital wing – again.

Confused, he opened his eyes again; why was he in the hospital wing at Hogwarts when he had spent the last year at Beauxbatons?

It had been the Easter holidays - no time had passed since then – training, a conversation with Dumbledore…

Dumbledore, the final Task.

Gasping and throwing himself forwards, Harry scrunched his eyes closed as memories rushed at him, flinching so hard at the tightness in his back that he lurched off the bed and curled up as tightly as he could with the skin on his back restricting his movement.

Tears came to his eyes as memories assaulted him; the maze, Cassius’ death, Wormtail, the ritual, Riddle, the duel, Dumbledore.

Vaguely through his sobs he heard a cry of, “Mr Potter!” and felt the wash of a spell over him, then he was being lifted up and placed back on the bed, still safe in the person’s arms. He didn’t immediately recognise who it was, but he instinctively felt like it was someone he was safe with.

“Shh, Harry, shh.” A voice soothed and a hand smoothed his hair, “It’s okay, you’re okay.”

Even in his half coherent state, he could tell that the person didn’t completely believe that everything was okay, but he still felt himself relaxing just a fraction.

“If you straighten your back then it will feel better.” The person told him with enough conviction that he believed it, so he unhooked his arms from around his legs and hugged himself around the stomach instead, peering around at who was holding him.

Through a bleary lens of tears, he looked up into the sadly smiling face of the school mediwitch.

“M-madam P-pomfrey?”

“Yes dear?” the same gentle voice asked him, hand still stroking his hair.

“That wasn’t all a dream, was it?”

“No dear, no it wasn’t.”

Harry wasn’t the only one crying now.

“And he’s really gone?”

“I’m afraid so.”

The arms around him tightened as his sobs lulled him back into sleep.

Poppy Pomfrey sighed softly, blinking back the tears as she carded her hand through the soft hair, not knowing if it was for her benefit or for the poor boy in her arms.

Pulling her wand out of her bun where she had stuck it after hearing Harry and coming running, she cast Tempus. Five o three; she had to start brewing a new stock of bruise paste, and she should probably ask Severus to brew some more dreamless sleep; she had a feeling that it would be needed more than usual in the weeks to com.

Carefully, she slipped out of the bed and tucked the covers around the sleeping boy, gently wiping the tears from his face with a cloth and giving his hair one last smooth before stepping away.

Once she had waved her wand to set wards that would tell her if Harry woke again and pulled the privacy curtains back around his bed, she stopped and took a deep, weary breath, squeezing her eyes shut for a few seconds.

When she opened them, it was to find Minerva walking towards her, a concerned look on her face.

“He woke for a little while,” she said, by way of explanation, “I heard a noise and found him crying on the floor. He asked me if it was a dream, if Albus was really g-gone.” Her voice cracked on the last word and her old friend wordlessly led her to the sofa into her office before pulling her into a hug.

“He’s just a boy, why does everything happen to him?”

“Albus spent the last fourteen years trying to protect him, he might not have been the best at it, but he tried. I guess that’s our job now.” Minerva told her friend.

They had known each other since first year; a loud, quick tongued, Gryffindor with a slight obsession for a Quidditch and a quiet, but just as quick tongued, Ravenclaw with a slight obsession for keeping her more reckless friend out of danger. Together they had made quite a pair, getting into all sorts of mischief without even meaning to and ending up in the hospital wing more times than either could count.

Armed with the knowledge of nearly fifty years of friendship, Minerva knew that Poppy had to have something to do or worry about, and that thing being Harry seemed to be the best solution. She had as much of a soft spot for him and Minerva herself did, and for his parents before him.

“We can’t protect him from the world, not if the world is out to get him.” Poppy sniffed over her shoulder, bring her out of her reminiscing.

“No, we can’t shield him from everything, but we can help him.”

“Of course, we’ll help him, of course, it’s the least we can do.”

* * *

When Harry next awoke, it was to the sounds of raised voices coming from the door of the hospital wing.

“What do you mean we can’t see him?! I thought you said he woke up?!”

Smiling slightly as he recognised that voice of one Ginny Weasley, he realised just how like her mother she could sound when she was angry. She was going to be a formidable woman for sure.

There was a cry of “Miss Weasley!”, then the curtains around him rustled and a small red-haired bullet dived onto the bed next to him, curling up into his side and wrapping its arms around him.

Harry pulled Ginny closer, burying his face in her hair, blinking back tears once again.

He wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that, but he looked up with he heard, “Oh, just invite yourselves along then.”

A red faced Hemione was pulled into the side of Draco on one side of his bed with Daphne, Ron, Luna, and Neville on the other. Madam Pomfrey was stood at the end of the bed with an exasperated but fond look on her face.

“C-can they stay?” his voice rasped, but she still understood him.

She nodded with a sigh, “Just for half an hour, then they have to go to lesson. But I have to check you over first.”

Harry silently agreed with the condition, and the Mediwitch stepped forwards, waving her wand over him as she did.

“Do you remember what happened?” she asked gently, and he nodded, assuming she was talking about his injuries and not in general as he didn’t think he would ask that with his friends there.

“I got a few cuts and bruises from the d-duel, I damaged my shoulder in the maze, and I think I might have slammed into the wards? They were on fire but I’m not sure why.” He replied dully.

“They were.” Madam Pomfrey nodded, not wanting to answer the unasked question, “You had a little nerve damage, do you know what that was from?”

“Nerve damage?” he thought about it for a minute, then remembered the sickly red spell, “Cruciatus.” He replied quietly and she nodded, a grim look on her face as she handed him a few potions to drink.

“Your injuries are healed. The skin on your back was severely burnt which is why the skin is so tight, it is new skin that hasn’t loosened up yet. I’ll tell you more about what you need to do to get better when this lot go. You’ll be on potions for a little while yet and are staying in the hospital wing for at least another week.”

Harry nodded, not willing to find the energy to argue, and asked, “How long have I been out for?”

“It’s about eight thirty on the ninth of June. You have been unconscious for thirteen days. The first week you were in a magically induced coma so you could be healed, then you were moved here, and we’ve been waiting for you to wake up for six days.” She gave him another small smile and patted his leg.

Looking around at everyone else, she told them, “You have twenty minutes, then you all have to go to lessons.” Then she turned back to Harry, “Just shout if you need me.”

“Madam Pomfrey?” Draco spoke up, “Can we tell him what he wants to know if he asks?”

The mediwitch considered both him and Harry, then gave a small nod before disappearing around the curtain.

“Are you all okay?” Harry asked quietly, then winced as how raspy his voice was.

Luna poured a glass of water from a jug and passed it to him with a small smile, “Better now we know you are okay.”

He nodded numbly, taking a soothing gulp of the water, and playing gently with Ginny’s hair.

“Does anyone know what happened?” he peered around at everyone.

Neville was staring at the floor and Luna had a comforting hand on his arm, Daphne was looking with concern at Ginny, who was still buried in his arms, and Ron was exchanging a glance with Draco, who was pulling Hermione closer to him.

Clearly the glance between Ron and Draco contained a conversation, because Ron gave a soft sigh and pulled his chair closer to the edge of the bed.

“There was someone planted in Beauxbatons whose job was to get you get you in the Tournament then make it so you won, touching the portkey in the centre that they made at the centre, taking you to wherever it was you went.”

“You don’t know?” Harry interrupted.

“No, they never worked it out.”

“Then I need to go and talk to Professor McGonagall.” He began to get out of bed, but Draco stepped forwards to stop him.

“She’ll come and see you soon. We haven’t known for nearly two weeks; another hour isn’t going to make that much difference.”

Harry sighed, and nodded, “Who was it then?” then his face drained for colour as he remembered the figure who had found his way into the ward dome, “Professor Bernard.” He whispered.

“Well,” Ron had taken over the telling again, “It was someone Polyjuiced to be Professor Bernard, yes. The real Professor Bernard was found locked in a trunk, he’ll be okay, but he’s still recovering. I think he’s planning on retiring now.” Ron sighed, “He was a kind of perfect person to impersonate, a loner by choice, a Defence professor, a dark wizard fighter so never under suspicion.”

“Who was he really?”

“Barty Crouch Junior.”

Harry frowned, trying to remember where he knew that name from until the memory of him reading an old newspaper about Barty Crouch Junior dying in Azkaban years ago.

“But isn’t he supposed to be…?”

“Dead?” Neville spoke for the first time, lifting his eyes from the floor, “Yes. That’s what everyone thought.”

That was when Harry remembered the first proper conversation he had ever had with Neville, in that very hospital wing, two years ago, when he had just told him about his Godfather escaping Azkaban.

_“You Know Who had just fallen, and the Death Eaters didn’t know why. They wanted answers and so four of them - Bellatrix Lestrange, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange and Barty Crouch Junior – went after my parents. They were Aurors at the time so they thought they might have information. Th-they, they were tortured into insanity and now they don’t even recognise me.”_

_Neville took a shaky breath and opened his eyes to look at the boy in the next bed, who’s expression held a mixture of sympathy and understanding._

_“I guess that means you are under a lot of pressure to live up to your parents’ standards and your grandmother’s expectations. You can do anything you put your mind to you know Neville, I truly believe it.”_

_“Thank you, I wish I did.”_

“Is it going to be me asking you not to go after someone this time?”

Neville shook his head, “He was captured and taking in for questioning. He was given the Kiss yesterday.” He looked back of Harry from where his gaze at returned to the floor, “I’m just worried about how people keep breaking out this supposedly impenetrable prison. Who will be next?”

It was clear exactly who he thought might be breaking out next – one Bellatrix Lestrange.

“Then I guess we’ll just have to make sure she doesn’t win.” Harry stated, after a moment’s pause, and everyone looked at him confused.

“Well, I’m guessing you would have told me if someone had of stopped Riddle already?”

There were nods all around.

“And by the fact that you’re all still here, I would guess that you haven’t quite given up on my yet? That there wouldn’t be any point in asking you if you wanted to stop being friends?”

The nods turned into emphatic shakes of heads.

“I’m not going to force you not to be my friend, I think you can all make that choice for yourself, but you are going to be in danger by associating with me. Riddle seems to be trying to get me for some reason, maybe it’s because he thinks I can defeat him like a supposedly did as a baby, maybe he just wants me out the way, but he will come after you because you are with me.”

Some of them looked like they wanted to interrupt, but Harry stopped them, “It’s true. Our parents are never going to let us join in the war, and for good reason, we don’t know what we’re doing, but we do need to be able to defend ourselves, I’ll help you all and we’ll learn this together.”

Hermione let out a sob and moved towards Harry, who pulled her into a one-armed hug.

“It’s okay, we’re going to be okay.” He whispered.

“It’s so dangerous, I was so worried!” she hugged him tighter.

“I know, Mione, I know. But I’m here now, we can protect each other.”

She pulled back, nodding, and wiping her eyes just as Madam Pomfrey appeared around the curtains once more.

“Come on you lot.” She ushered them from the room, although without the usual bite in her voice.

Harry looked down at the girl who was still in his arms and had not uttered a word since her arrival and turned pleading eyes up to the Mediwitch.

“Can she stay please, just a five more minutes?”

Madam Pomfrey nodded, “Just five. Professor McGonagall will be here to talk to you soon.”

Harry nodded and tucked his nose back into Ginny’s hair, holding her a minute longer before whispering, “Gin? What’s wrong? That might be a stupid question, but tell me?”

Her head lifted and her pale face looked into his own, “I’m just having some trouble processing. I was so worried out you,” her eyes filled with tears and she blinked them back furiously, “But I was trying so hard to be strong. Everyone’s talking about it, no one knew when you would be waking up, it was so scary to see you slam into the wards like that, I don’t know how to process it.”

“Hey,” he soothed, putting his hand on her cheek, “I won’t think any less of you if you cry, crying is good sometimes. There’s a difference between being strong and being emotionless and you’re the strongest person I know, tears or no tears. Okay?”

With a nod and a sob, she buried her face in his chest and cried until she had let it all out; then she sat up, visibly pulling herself together and she waved her wand to clean her face of tears.

They exchanged a final reassuring smile before Ginny disappeared around the curtain to be replaced by a solemn looking Minerva.

He gave a grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes, “Minnie.”

She didn’t seem to be able to find it in her to be annoyed or even exasperated by the nickname, she just gathered him up in what had to have been his hundredth hug in the half an hour he had been awake – not that he was complaining.

“Severus should be here any minute.” She told him as she pulled a chair close to the bed and sure enough, the Potions Master appeared less than a minute later, moving at a speed the closest to running Harry had ever seen him.

“Dad!”

“You’re okay.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself, so Harry nodded and joked feebly.

“It takes a lot to get rid of me.”

“I don’t know how you manage it.”

The three sat for a few minutes before Minerva spoke up, “Are you ready to talk about what happened, Harry?”

He nodded hesitantly then began from him and Cassius deciding to grab the cup together, stopping a few times to collect himself and allow Minerva to collect some memories as evidence.

By the time he had finished, all three of them were crying slightly and they took a while to recover before Harry began to ask questions.

“Who’s in charge of Hogwarts?”

Minerva sighed slightly, “Me. I’m interim Headmistress, and I’m most likely going to stay Headmistress next year. The Board of Governors think that it’s best to have someone already at Hogwarts to be in charge and I have to say that I agree, especially when you consider the nature of Albus’ d-death.”

Harry nodded, “I think you’ll make a good Headmistress. Who’s taking over the transfiguration position?”

She gave him a small smile, “Thank you, a bhobain. Sirius is teaching transfiguration at the moment, but he doesn’t have time to teach full time all year. I’m covering Defence for Remus during the full moon while trying to sort everything else out.” With sigh, she rubbed a hand across her face.

“Is everything a mess?” Harry asked hesitantly and the two exchanged a glance.

“Albus had a lot of responsibility, which means that all that slack is being taken up by people who don’t quite know what they are doing.” Severus explained.

“He had talked to me about taking over as Headmistress next year anyway, that’s why I’m staying on, but it’s harder to find a replacement for Chief Warlock or Supreme Mugwump.”

“So, who have they found? Or have they not found anyone yet?”

“The International Confederation of Wizards had a meeting last weekend; an Australian witch was elected. She’ll be good for them I think, willing to drag everyone kicking and screaming into the twentieth century and beyond. Light but fair, all for creature and muggleborn rights.”

“They haven’t found anyone for Chief Warlock yet; they had a meeting the day after the Third Task and everything was just a shouting mess apparently.” Minerva glared disapprovingly at no one in particular, “They have another meeting tomorrow to elect someone and still no one can decide who they want to be in charge.”

Harry looked up, horrified, “I bet you anything the Dark are united in who they want, who Riddle who told them to put in. If the Light aren’t united, then whoever Riddle wants will get in.”

Both looked at him helplessly and he refrained from rolling his eyes.

“I need to go and teach; I’ll be just in time for my second lesson.” Severus spoke up after a few minutes, giving Harry a last hug before heading out with Minerva following soon after.

“Great, the first hurdle of the magical war is a political battle and none of the adults knows what’s going on.” Harry muttered, more to himself as he sat thinking, trying to ignore the flashes of memories in the back of his mind.

Eventually, he summoned his mirror from his trunk that had been placed by the bed and activated it.

“Hey Nev, you’re in between lessons now, aren’t you? Do me a favour, grab Draco and Daphne, we have some planning to do and I need your expertise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bhobain means my darling or rascal in Gaelic, I just thought it was cute.  
> This isn’t going to be a ‘kids take over’ story, but sometimes it is that the younger generation come up with a better plan the ‘more responsible and mature’ older generation. That’s all that is happening here, they’re putting together a plan for the Wizengamot members (eg Sirius) to use.  
> A note that I think Poppy Pomfrey can brew some things. I think that she brews as much as she can, when she has time, but she leaves the higher-level stuff for Sev.  
> Another point about this chapter, I’m not sure how clear it is, but Harry hasn’t really come to terms about what is happening, he’s only been awake for a few hours and he hasn’t really seen what is happening, he’s more in shock than anything.  
> Next weekend is going to be a double chapter upload because there is only one chapter left in this work, then we move onto year 5!


	26. Down the darkest alleys [P4]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is the final chapter of Wolves!  
> Its mostly a cleaning up chapter, wrapping up a few things, but it should be alright for now :D  
> Enjoy!

Harry woke covered in sweat and trembling slightly but safe in the strong arms of his Dad.

When Neville, Draco and Daphne had left to send owls to the people they knew of the light and neutral factions of the Wizengamot an hour after they had arrived, Harry had hardly been managing to keep his eyes open.

After falling asleep instantly, he had slept fairly undisturbed for a good few hours until a nightmare hit. It was a mix of memory and fiction; jets of green hitting first Cassius, the Wormtail, Dumbledore and then moving on to his friends and family, picking them off one by one as he watched in horror, unable to move.

He drew a deep breath, taking the time to shake the flashing scenes from the front of his mind before melting into the warm arms around him. They sat together for a while after he had recovered, Severus filling Harry in on some of the more inconsequential things that had happened while he had been unconscious.

They’d been there for a while when Madam Pomphrey arrived to give him his potions and a meal, his first proper meal in two weeks.

“We’ve been spelling nutrient potions straight into your stomach,” the mediwitch explained, “Which are enough to keep you alive, but you’ve still lost weight so you’re going to be on a supplement for a while longer. No flying until the summer holidays.”

Harry nodded in understanding; he was disappointed but not surprised and he hadn’t had a broom since the Second Task - that wasn’t to say he hadn’t been flying but borrowing a broom didn’t quite have the same feel to it – and there were only two weeks left until the end of term anyway.

Severus helped him to the bathroom then called a House Elf to bring his own meal to where he was sat and the two ate together, mostly in silence.

Just as they were finishing, Minerva appeared and pulled up a chair for herself.

“Dinner just finished.” She sighed, stretching out her aching feet, “I came to see what you were scheming.”

“Scheming?” Harry asked innocently.

“Yes, scheming. You, Miss Greengrass, Mr Malfoy and Mr Longbottom, a flurry of owls leaving this afternoon. Hagrid thought he was going to be mobbed.”

“I would call then less scheming and more planning.” He maintained his air of innocence, ignoring his Dad’s smirks in an effort to hold back his own.

“And what was this plan, oh great planner?” Minerva raised an eyebrow and Harry couldn’t help but smile.

“Trying to get a united front in the face of the Wizengamot.” He replied and both adults looked concerned, “Lord Greengrass took over temporarily as the most senior member to overlook the vote. We thought about using the life debt I have to persuade him to take over permanently, but that only holds so much power and we need someone who cannot be swayed to favour the dark side if it suites them, Lord Greengrass being neutral.”

The concern turned to surprise as Harry took a breath, “That means we need a light witch or wizard who is respected and fair, someone who will not make enemies by being unnecessarily harsh or biased but is one hundred percent trying to stop Riddle.”

“And?” Severus asked, “That’s a lot of requirements, did you come up with a name?”

“We did, after much discussion.” He let out a small laugh, “Augusta Longbottom.”

There was silence for a moment before Minerva nodded, “I think she has everything we need, yes.”

“A formidable woman.” Severus agreed.

“We made the plan, and the others wrote out letters to those who they know who needed to be persuaded, we will know if we have been successful tomorrow.”

The trio sat in silence for a while longer until Harry finally spoke up tentatively.

“What happened?”

He merely received a curious look in reply, so he expanded, “With the wards, why did they catch on fire?”

Minerva sighed softly, visible steadying herself then explaining, “When a witch or wizard are killed, their magic is dispelled from their body and into the surroundings. A-albus had a lot of magic, and because it was raw power it moved out in a wave until it hit the ward of his creation, at which point it caught of fire to try and disperse itself. The wave was so strong it became a physical force, pushing everyone it touched backwards, it just so happened that you were close to the wards and it pushed you back onto them.”

Harry nodded, thinking silently for a few minutes before asking quietly, “What of funerals?”

Another soft sigh, “Albus’ is arranged for two days’ time, here at Hogwarts, all staff and students are invited plus other guests.”

“And you will be able go, even if I have to carry you myself.” Severus added.

Nodding again, Harry asked quietly, “And Cassius?” wincing at the scowl his dad gave.

“A private burial.” He ground out, sneering slightly “Was held three days after the event.”

Feeling anger bubbling up inside him, Harry scowled also, “His Dad just wanted him out of the way. Didn’t even care about him being d-dead.”

Severus was silent, nodding minutely but ultimately knowing that he couldn’t do anything about it.

“Can we have a memorial for him?”

After a moment of thought, the Potions Master agreed, “I’ll arrange it.”

The next two days were spent with Harry sleeping every couple of hours; nightmares awoke him a few times, but his body was too exhausted to stay awake for long periods of time, so sleep always claimed him again, that sleep being hijacked by dreams with mind numbing regularity.

Saturday brought a conversation with his close friends and family, another recounting of what had happened because only Minerva and Severus had been told so far, and the deciding of which details should be published in the Quibbler.

Sunday brought the Wizengamot session - in which Augusta Longbottom was thankfully voted as Chief Warlock by a two thirds majority – and the following funeral of Albus Dumbledore.

The funeral was held on the grounds of Hogwarts and hundreds of people attended from all over the world. Rows upon rows of purple chairs were lined up before a grave that Hagrid had dug earlier that day under the shade of the biggest oak on the grounds, with a view of the lake and the castle.

There was already a low hum of noise when Harry made his way out of the Entrance Hall, walking stiffly and leaning on Ginny slightly, Severus hovering nearby.

Many people turned to stare at him, which he understood at this was the first time that he had been seen outside of the hospital wing since the Third Task, but that didn’t make it any less awkward.

He smoothed his smart robes uncomfortably, wishing that everyone would follow the example of the few and purposefully avoid looking at him, which was better than openly gawking. The trio made their way slowly to the front of the chairs, Severus and Harry finding their chairs on the front row and Ginny perching there until the other students came out.

It wasn’t long before other Heads of House joined them, plus Madam Pomphrey, as some of the people who knew Albus best. Harry had no doubt in his mind that he hardly knew Dumbledore at all, as almost all of their conversations had been about him, but Minerva wanted him nearer the front than the other students and it made sense for him to sit with Severus.

The rest of the staff sat behind them with the people who had fought with Dumbledore in the first Wizarding War and against Grindelwald behind them. To the front and left were people who were representing other countries - as was customary when a Supreme Mugwump died while in service - along with a large portion of the Wizengamot.

Further back was general public, who were by far the greatest number, and a small amount of press who had signed a strict contact with the Headmistress that didn’t allow them to distract, disrupt or disrespect.

Once everyone else was seated, the Headmistress appeared with all of the Hogwarts students in toe. They silently filed into the chairs at the back of the congregation, ushered by the prefects, as Minerva made her way to the front to stand before the crowd.

Hagrid made his way next, standing just beyond the grave and watching with muffled sobs as he watched eight ICW aurors progress down the aisle with an open coffin on their shoulders which they placed just before the grave, behind the Minerva.

A man who couldn’t be anyone except Dumbledore’s brother walked down after the coffin, slipping into his place on the front row with a nod to the Headmistress, who then began the service.

Harry mostly zoned out from what was happening around him. A few people got up to speak and share their memories, the new heads of the Wizengamot, ICW and Hogwarts all showing their respects for his past roles and telling a little about what he fought for, but Harry didn’t hear any of it.

Instead, he was looking at the coffin. It was a pure white marble with silver metalwork which seemed to represent everything that Dumbledore was to people; he was their beacon, whether he wanted to be or not.

Within the coffin, Dumbledore was dressed in his favourite outfit, a midnight blue robe with constellations, that actually twinkled and shone, stitched into it; a symbol that not even death could take away his extravagant style.

The congregation had dressed accordingly, no black as there would have been at a muggle funeral, everyone was wearing colour. None as bright as the colours that the Headmaster had worn, but more than enough to encourage the feeling of celebrating a life, rather than mourning a loss, not that that wasn’t happening also.

Looking down at his own deep purple robes then back to the coffin, Harry gave a sad smile then took a deeper look at the face he could just see over the rim.

The elderly wizard looked the most relaxed Harry had ever seen him, all of the stress and pain that life caused had left along with their physical reminders. He still looked old, yes, but no longer weary.

He watched as Minerva pulled Dumbledore’s wand from her pocket and placed it in the coffin with the body, taking a moment to say something that only she and he would ever hear, then she stepped back and allowed Hagrid to first close the coffin, then lower it into the grave.

Everyone took a moment of silence as Hagrid began to shovel earth back over the coffin then placed a small pile of carefully stacked stones atop to lay the foundations for the headstone which could be placed in six months.

The service over, most of the students filed out to go back to their common rooms while the other guests began making their way to the Great Hall for refreshment.

Although the size of the congregation halved with the students leaving and some of the guests going home, there was still far too many people milling around for Harry, who felt quite exposed in his weakened state.

Seeing his discomfort and armed with the knowledge that he didn’t want to stay either, Severus began to lead his son through the crowd. It was slow going, both because of the injury and because people insisted on talking to them, although most were sensible enough to not ask insensitive questions.

The press seemed to be avoiding him, some staring but looking away with almost fearful looks when he caught them. Harry suspected that they had seen the fearsome side of the Headmistress before being allowed in.

They were nearly at the doors when a throat cleared behind them and they turned to see Lord Delacour – or Minister Delacour as he now was – with Fleur stood just beside him.

“Minister.” Harry gave as much of a bow as his back would allow, although it came out a little stiff.

“Please, call me Antoine, you have more than deserved it, Heir Potter. I hope you are recovering well?”

“Antoine, please call me Harry then. Quite well thank you, I am still stiff, but the healers say I will make a full recovery. I was the lucky one. Fleur.” He leaned forwards to give her a hug, “I hope you’re well?”

The words were simple, but the underlying message was clear; are you feeling lasting effects from the events of the Third Task?

“Well enough.” She gave a delicate but slightly weary smile, “With some time, I’m sure I’ll be even better. I hope we can have a proper talk soon?”

Another underlying message: I’d like to talk to you about what happened, but I don’t know if either of us are up to it right now.

Harry nodded, “We’re holding a memorial for Cassius with his friends. His family,” he couldn’t help but spit the word, “Held a private funeral, but we would still like to remember him, you are welcome to join if you don’t mind the longer journey?”

“I would like that very much, depending on when it is, I might already be here as I am moving here to work. Gabrielle is attending Beauxbatons next year, so Maman will have more time to help Papa with the politics and I would like to work for Gringotts. England is the central branch, so I am moving here to work and hopefully, as you said, improve the relationship between Britain and France.”

“It will be nice to have you around,” Harry gave her a small smile, “I only hope that you will not miss France too much. My dad is arranging the details of the memorial, he is – was – Cassius’ Head of House, so he knows who to contact, I can send you the date when I have it, if you like?”

“I would be very grateful, thank you.”

There was a pause, then Harry asked, “I hope there wasn’t too much chaos to sort out with Beauxbatons and the French Ministry?”

“I’m afraid there was rather a lot, but we are nearly back under control again thankfully. I have worked with Madam Mafalda to make Beauxbatons much safer, with new wards and added security, to stop anything like this happening again. It has come to light that the esteemed Headmistress has been asking for funds to updates the wards for years, but it has been refused time after time. A corrupt government I’m afraid; but we are working to bring it back up to standard.”

“If things are looking up, I am glad. I believe you will do great things for your country and I hope Britain will get a similar upgrade very soon.” He shot a slightly disgusted look at Minister Fudge, who was trying his best to look appropriately sad in his lime green robes, “Perhaps in the not-too-distant future our countries can create a better relationship? I am aware that we have been quite isolated in the last few decades.”

“Perhaps sooner than you think, Harry.” Fleur spoke up, “If everything goes as planned for me and your Ministry.”

“I hope it does, Fleur, but I’m not sure. Our current Minister probably won’t be open to relations, he’ll see it as a threat, but I hope we’ll be able to get a stronger people in charge soon.”

Fleur nodded her agreement, then Minister Delacour stepped back in, “I don’t want to take up too much of your time, Harry, but checking how you were recovering was only part of the reason I wanted to find you today.”

Harry stiffened slightly before gestured for him to continue.

“The Triwizard Winnings, one thousand galleons. The unusual circumstances state that we split the money between the two winners. It is also dictated that we give the family of the winner the prize if the winner cannot take it, but I wanted to ask your opinion as to what I should do with the money, as joint the winner.”

Ignoring the sick feeling in his stomach, Harry thought for a moment, “I would avoid giving it to his parents,” again he spat the word, “They would only give it to his murderer. If you agree, then I would give all of the winnings, both his share and mine, to Hogwarts to update our wards. The Headmistress mentioned that she needed to, and, as you say Antione, that requires funds. I believe that C-cassius would want to put the money into keeping the place that I got the impression he, like me, called home. Would you agree Dad?”

Severus, who had been silent up to this point beyond a bow in greeting, nodded, “I agree, Harry. Cassius wanted to be an Auror, to keep people safe, I think he would be happy with the money going towards the school.”

Minister Delacour considered them for a moment before nodded and pulling a money bag out of his pocket and handing it to Severus, “I had a feeling you would come up with something like this. Here is the money. And Harry? You still deserve congratulations for your win, whether it felt like a win or not.”

With a final bow and small smile, he turned away, shortly followed by Fleur after she had given Harry another hug.

Back in the infirmary, Harry couldn’t bring himself to eat.

He swallowed his potions, grimacing at the taste, and lay back in the pillows; he was exhausted, but he knew that sleep wasn’t going to be coming to him easily.

Severus had disappeared soon after getting him back to the hospital wing, under the pretence of brewing something, but Harry knew that he just wanted to be alone, and he didn’t blame him.

The other staff were in the Great Hall, although he knew that Madam Pomphrey had left a House Elf on duty to tell her of any problems, and is friends were in their common rooms, which meant that Harry was alone in his thoughts but, for the first time since he had woken up, that was exactly where he wanted to be.

The funeral had made it more real.

Dumbledore was gone, Riddle was back, and everyone was in danger.

Giving a weary sigh, Harry wondered how he was supposed to protect everyone in the war that was just on the horizon.

Everyone was going to tell him that it wasn’t his job to protect them, but he had only just got a family – he loved them all – and he wasn’t about to lose them easily.

He thought back to the Easter holidays and how hard they had all fought to keep his Dad with them; everyone had been so down then, so tense, as they were now, and the only thing that had really kept them from despair then was the constant shenanigans of the Weasley twins.

A plan coming into his mind, Harry fished his communication mirror out of his pocket and called his girlfriend.

“Hey Harry, is everything alright?”

“Hi Gin, yeah it is. I was just wondering if you could ask the twins to come down here?”

“Urm, I suppose.” There was a curious glint in her eye, but she didn’t ask, knowing that he would probably tell her later, “I’ll ask them and call you back if they can’t come right now.”

Ten minutes later, two curious looking Weasley twins were sat on chairs to the side of his bed.

“Gred, Forge. I need your help.”

“Anything we can…”

“…Help with, little Harrikins.” They teased.

“Guys, a war is coming.”

Both gave him solemn nods.

“And spirits are going to get pretty low pretty quickly. I think you are the perfect people to help because you can make people laugh and laughter gives hope.”

“What did you…”

“…Have in mind?”

They could tell he wasn’t talking about a little prank to turn someone’s hair purple.

“I want to be your silent business partner and help you open your joke shop.”

The twins gave him identical looks of shock and he hastened to continue, “Ginny has been telling me about the things you’ve been inventing for the last few years, I even got to see some at Easter, and I know it’s your dream to open a shop. I think you should do it, and I want to help you.”

There was a full minute of silence before they exchanged an awestruck look.

“Do you have the money for that?” one twin asked seriously.

“I do, George. And I have experience with business contracts, having helped start up a quidditch shop that is due to open in just a few weeks.”

“And you would be willing to sign a contact with us?” the other twin asked, no longer surprised that Harry could tell the difference between them - something even their mother struggled with but that Harry had been able to do from the moment he met them.

“Yes, Fred. You can have time to think about it of course.”

“I don’t think that…”

“…We need any time…”

“Yes, please and thank you!”

Both nodded vigorously and got down on their knees before him, begging and bowing.

They drew up the basics of the contract. Harry would give them the money and own ten percent of the business ‘Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes’ which would be set to open the following summer under the conditions that they passed all of their NEWTs and didn’t use anyone who hadn’t given permission as a test subject (which were Harry’s stipulations, not wanting to have their mother after him).

In turn, the twins insisted that Harry was allowed any products that he wanted without paying and was saved from targeted pranks (which meant that he was still going to get got if they pranked the whole school, but he didn’t mind).

As an extra bonus, Harry asked that the twins spend the summer designing tricks that could be used to protect objects and people, either to be placed as traps or used as a distraction. They readily agreed.

* * *

The last two weeks of term passed at the speed of light, but also seemed to move at snail’s pace.

Each day seemed to zip by, and each night seemed to crawl, filled with restless sleep and choppy nightmares. He didn’t go back to the Gryffindor tower after he was release from the hospital wing, instead moving straight into his room in the dungeon.

With only a week left of term, all classes were over, but people were more subdued than they usually were when faced with two months off. The feeling of one of them missing was strong, not to mention the void that the Headmaster left behind him.

For the first time since he was eleven, Harry didn’t take the train home with his friends at the beginning of the summer holidays. His back was much improved, but prone to aching if he stayed in one position for too long, so eight hours on the train was a bad idea.

Instead, he wandered around the lake, having a hissed conversation with Elpis, who had been a constant support for him over the last two weeks.

Absently, he dried the floor with a flick of his hand (it was Scotland after all, so it didn’t stay dry for more than a week) and sat down under his favourite tree by the lake. He thought back to the Cassius’ memorial.

It was held the last weekend and Harry had gone with Severus to talk to the Slytherins before.

He explained what had happened in the graveyard – he still didn’t quite say everything, but he gave slightly more detail than he had to the Quibbler, thinking that they deserved the details, if only as a warning.

Once he had finished, he took a deep breath and looked around the common room, steeling himself for a final speech.

_“Riddle called Cassius a spare, he said k-kill the s-spare, and Pettigrew did. The reason I say this is because Riddle didn’t care who it was that he was ordering dead, he just wanted him out of the way. There are some of you here that either believe in what Riddle is trying to do, or believe in your parents who follow him, but you have to know that he does not care. If you mess up, he will torture you, kill you, he doesn’t care about you and he will not give you eternal glory if you help him succeed, not matter what he says. If he promises you something, he is lying, he doesn’t care about you, he only cares about winning and he will use you._

_“Some of you might think that Cassius wasn’t going to follow his parents and join Riddle, so it didn’t matter anyway or that he deserved it. But Riddle didn’t know which side he was on when he ordered him dead. I just hope that you keep this in mind. You all have a choice now. You can become to stereotype that people have forced upon you and be evil, join Riddle, or you can bring back what it truly means to be a Slytherin and fight for your families. Of course, you can stay out of it, but there may come a time that you have to choose, I only hope that you choose life, not death.”_

_There was silence for a moment as everyone digested this and Severus carefully looked around at the faces staring up at him, noting which people clearly disagreed with the speech and which seemed to be willing to fight._

_He sighed, hoping that the ones in danger would realise what they were getting themselves into before it was too late._

_“I was a spy in the first war, but I can’t be in the second as my loyalties are already clear.” Severus lifted his left sleeve to show the marred skin where the black tattoo used to be, “We managed to get rid of the Dark Mark, but that was a pain that I do not want any of you to go through. You can come to me for anything at all and I promise that if you need to be removed from your home because you are in danger, then I will help you. I do not want any of you being forced into anything, but you should all think long and hard about what you are going to do, else I’m afraid that some of you are in for a rather rough awakening.”_

Fleur had made it to the memorial after all - as did Viktor and a few of Cassius’ friends who had already left Hogwarts, including Yasmin and Dani (Yasmin’s partner for her Quidditch shop) – and it was a quiet affair, held in the room of requirement.

They had engraved a stone in wall of the Slytherin common room with the words,

_‘Cassius Warrington_

_September 1 st 1977 – May 27th 1995_

_He showed us what it was to be a true Slytherin’_

Harry considered the words as he sat by the lake, hoping that others would follow in Cassius’ example, fighting against his parent’s prejudiced beliefs and looking out for those around him, even if it were under the guise of evening debts.

There wasn’t any doubt in his mind that there was a war coming, now they just had to get through it and find a way to come out victorious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The term Chief Warlock is genderless now, I have decided!  
> I’m aware that this isn’t quite good funeral etiquette, but this is what felt good to right.  
> Well guys, that’s the final chapter of year four, you’ve read nearly 230,00 words of my writing if you’ve got to this point and, personally, I’m amazed that anyone has stuck around this long, so thank you!  
> By the time you read this, the first chapter of the next work in this series ‘What do I know’ should be up, so you can just go and ahead and read that now :D  
> As always, I like to know what you think and thank you for the Kudos and support!


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